There are very few things in life that can be classified easily into black or white; a lot of life is just some shade of gray. One blatantly black-and-white thing though is the killing of civilians in any armed conflict.
No matter how justified you may think your reasons are, no matter how justified they may actually even be, nothing, NOTHING can justify the killing of innocent, unarmed civilians.
The on-going conflict between Israel and Hamas has been an eye-opener in this context.
What Hamas did on October 7th, 2023 was an abhorrent and despicable act of terrorism. There can be no arguments against it. The Hamas organization can think it was fighting for a just cause all it wants, but targeting civilians, and that too in such a brutal and barbaric manner, is totally unacceptable. This act justly reinforced the “terrorist” tag on this organization.
However, what has been truly shocking is Israel’s response to this act of terrorism – a response that has been nothing short of inhumane, and a dastardly and blatant violation of basic human rights and international law. Like Hamas, Israel can try to justify its actions, saying it “has a right to defend itself”, but as mentioned before, killing civilians can never, ever be justified, no matter what.
At this point, I do want to differentiate between an elected government or organization, and the people who put them there. The actions of a selected few can not, and should not, be seen as the collective will of the populace. There are always those who would disagree with the actions of those governing them.
The common Palestinian or Gazan citizen does not represent Hamas. Similarly, the common Israeli citizen is not a stand-in for the Israeli government. Neither anti-semitism, nor Islamophobia, can have any room in civilized dialogue, even when one disagrees and actively opposes the respective government policies. Again, targeting civilians just because they happen to belong to a particular country or religion is unacceptable.
Despite this basic tenet of modern civilization, both Hamas and Israel did target civilians of the opposing side. Hamas targeted a music festival full of young people, as well as several peaceful communities along the border. The Israeli response has been even more indiscriminate, as it has targeted housing complexes, schools run by the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO) facilities, ambulances, other hospitals, UN shelters, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aid convoys, etc. And not to forget: the complete siege of Gaza, cutting off basic human necessities like water, food, medicines, fuel, telecommunications. And the apartheid, and ever increasing harassment, imprisonment, and elimination of the Palestinians, including children, in the West Bank.
This begs the question: how different are Hamas and Israel’s actions really? In their own minds, both have justifications for their actions (we don’t need to argue about whether those justifications are actually right or not at this juncture; the main point is both are convinced that their actions are just), and both have targeted and killed innocent civilians, including children. Yet, only one of these two entities is labeled a “terrorist”?
There are those who try to justify the actions of Israel, giving all sorts of excuses. Let’s talk about those.
The most common one is: Israel is “only targeting terror cells and infrastructure”, and is “doing its best to avoid any civilian casualties”. Really? By Israel’s own admission, one of its army tanks has hit an Egyptian post near the Gaza border, causing injuries to guards posted there. Israel has even apologized for a targeted missile strike around a group of journalists near the Lebanon border, that resulted in the death of a Reuters’ video journalist, while injuring others as well.
When the Israeli army can’t even target these areas that are far away from the center of the conflict accurately, killing and causing rampant damage in its rage-infested hubris, how naive, or stupid, does one have to be to think that its strikes on Gaza – the most densely populated area on the Earth – are precision hits? That all of its thousands of missile strikes so far have hit actual terror targets? That it is “doing its best” to avoid civilian casualties? If this kind of widespread destruction is indeed the best it can do, then we all need to be very, very afraid. This is a classic case of a monkey playing with fire. And the world, especially the US, needs to stop supplying matches to this monkey.
Then, Israel also says that the civilians being killed are Hamas’ fault because they are using the Gaza citizens as human shields, as it has built an underground network of tunnels below hospitals, schools, houses. And that by bombing these places, which ideally would be considered sacrosanct from any sort of military persecution by any law-abiding military force, Israel is mainly killing Hamas operatives, and only a small number of civilians, who are just “collateral damage”.
This again shows how Israel is blatantly lying its way through this genocide. First of all, even if the citizens were being used as human shields, does it justify killing and maiming them in this way? One can’t expect “terrorists” to honor the sanctity of human life. But at least the so-called “civilized” world, which Israel thinks it belongs to, should. Secondly, Israel needs to clearly account for this: how many of the more than 13,000 people massacred so far were Hamas operatives? How many of the more than 5,500 children slaughtered were terrorists?
Israel’s intentions and reporting seem even more dubious since it has not allowed independent UN teams, composed of representatives from the Arab world, the Palestinian Authority, and other non-aligned parties, to enter Gaza and do a comprehensive, well-rounded, and objective analysis of the conflict, even as it has allowed reporters from western media agencies like CNN, BBC, Fox News, etc. inside Gaza. Clearly, this is because Israel knows that it can rely on the western media to help propagate its false narrative. Already, there have been several instances in which Israel’s so-called “proof” of militant activities have been found to be lacking. Here are some resources for those who want details of Israel’s false narrative: link 1 | link 2
If Israel was engaging in this conflict in a fair and reasonable manner, then why not allow a team of UN and other international representatives, when you can allow BBC and Fox News?
Another narrative being peddled by Israel, in collusion with the US, is that the number of casualties in Gaza, reported by the Gazan health ministry, are inflated, and unreliable to begin with.
The truth is the numbers are quite accurate. James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF, in a recent interview to CNN, has confirmed that UNICEF’s own, independent verifications (after a thorough vetting process) into the number of casualties in past conflicts has always closely aligned with the numbers reported by the health ministry. The difference, if any, has never been more than 1-2%. And with so many UN agencies already in Gaza even now, all confirming that the death toll is indeed astronomical, and with the scenes of absolute destruction and mayhem that we can all see for ourselves on our screens, how can anyone even think of questioning these numbers?
One can understand why Israel would muddy the waters on these numbers. But it is an utter disgrace for the President of the USA, Joe Biden, specifically, to question these numbers. You are the most powerful man, the supposed “leader” of the free world. And these are your fellow human beings. Mostly just children. You can save countless innocent lives. You can stop the war. But not only are you refusing to call for a ceasefire, you don’t even have the decency to acknowledge their deaths? Surely, the US, with its state-of-the-art intelligence capabilities, knows the accurate death toll. Yet, you resort to misinformation, to denying dignity to children, even in their untimely deaths. Shame on you, Mr. President. History will not be kind to you. And it rightly shouldn’t.
While we are on the topic of the so-called world “leaders”: this conflict has exposed the “leaders” of the “developed” countries in the west for the petty politicians that they actually are. Most of them have shown themselves to be cowards, afraid to say, and to do, the right thing, for fear of repercussions in their domestic political landscape. Initially, they promised “unwavering support” to Israel, and it is only after their local vote banks started aggressively agitating against the unjust and inhumane treatment and condition of the people in Gaza, have they realized that now, after thirteen thousand people have been slaughtered, that perhaps things are getting a bit out of hand – just a bit though, not too much, because it is still not enough for some of them to openly call for a complete ceasefire!
Perhaps they never had a moral compass to begin with, or lost it along the way somewhere, but the whole world can now see that their actions are only determined by re-election mathematics, and not from a deep-seated sense of righteousness. Henceforth, they have lost the moral authority to lecture anyone, anywhere in the world about freedom, democracy, law, justice, and human rights.
In fact, it is the “less developed” and “smaller” countries like Bolivia, Honduras, Chile, Colombia, etc. that have shown the spine to do what is right in this particular case, by putting real diplomatic pressure on Israel, instead of doing mere lip-service. These countries are not even part of the Middle-East or the Islamic world (countries which should ideally be doing a lot more), and for them to be going to such extents, is really praiseworthy. If only the more “powerful” countries had their courage.
The hypocrisy of the western world is also evident in the extremely different responses to the two major conflicts in recent times – Russia vs Ukraine, and now Israel vs Palestine. The NATO countries, again led by the US, immediately banded together, and imposed wide-ranging and harsh sanctions on Russia for its aggression. Yet, in Israel’s war on Gaza, the very same countries immediately provided their full backing to Israel. There can be little doubt that Israel wouldn’t have been this emboldened in its brazen disregard for international law and human life if it did not enjoy the protection of the US and its allies.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has also killed and displaced innocent civilians, which can not be accepted under any circumstances, and must be condemned, without any qualifications. However, compared to the atrocities being committed under the leadership of the genocidal maniac Netanyahu, Putin seems like a downright humanitarian! And Russia has been mocking the US and the world on this by proposing draft resolutions in the UN that call for a ceasefire in Gaza. A classic case of the kettle calling the pot black, but here’s a simple fact: Between February 24th, 2022 (when the Russia-Ukraine war erupted) and September 10th, 2023, Russia has killed about 550 children in 80 weeks. Compare that to the more than 5,500 children killed by Israel in 6 weeks! That’s 10 times the number of children killed in 1/13th of the time.
The UN has been declining in its credibility and effectiveness already for some time now, even before this latest conflict. However, the sheer impotence with which it is standing on the sidelines, just watching this genocide play out, has been unbelievable and tragic. It might be too soon to call it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the last nail in the coffin for the UN.
Any time anyone tries to raise a voice against Israel’s atrocities, the response is, “but do you condemn Hamas?” Here’s my answer: I do. I have from the day of the attack itself. I condemn Hamas and their actions.
And I condemn Israel and its actions, too, in the same breath, and with the same vehemence, if not more. After all, Israel has killed more than 10 times the number of innocent civilians that Hamas has killed.
Remind me: Who are the good guys again?
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Credits: Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
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