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<h1 class="gmail-single_title">What the international community’s silence over Israel’s colonial violence has reaped in Gaza</h1>
<div class="gmail-article-author"><h3>By <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/?p=250011"> Ramona Wadi </a></h3></div>
<p class="gmail-single_date">Tuesday 2-January-2024 - <font size="1"><a href="https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/what-the-international-communitys-silence-over-israels-colonial-violence-has-reaped-in-gaza/">https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/what-the-international-communitys-silence-over-israels-colonial-violence-has-reaped-in-gaza/</a></font></p>
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<p>“We cannot let the idea take root that an efficient fight against
terrorism implies to flatten Gaza or attack civilian populations
indiscriminately,” French President Emmanuel Macron stated a week ago.
Israel, he said, should: “Stop this response because it is not
appropriate because all lives are worth the same and we defend them.”</p>
<p>Macron should be stumbling over his words. Early on, he was one of
the first leaders to express complete support for Israel’s security
narrative and was completely cognizant of the fact that the Israeli
prime minister intended to flatten Gaza and attack civilian populations.
This means that for Israel, France and the international community, all
lives are not the same and not all lives are equally defended.</p>
<p>As Israel plans to forcibly transfer Palestinians to the Sinai and
expects the international community to collaborate by taking in
Palestinian refugees for resettlement in host countries, the lack of
action over Israel’s ethnic cleansing plans mirrors the path taken
during the 1948 Nakba, when Israel was rewarded with recognition as a
state after it forcibly displaced 750,000 Palestinians to replace them
with settler-colonists. In real-time, and as more details of Israel’s
atrocities come to light, the United Nations (UN) is merely using Gaza
as a talking point from a distance, repetitively stating that the forced
transfer of a civilian population constitutes an international law
violation. That much is obvious – does the UN require a round of
applause for stating basic facts?</p>
<p>Euro-Med Monitor has published a report that calls for the
investigation of organ theft from killed Palestinians after medical
professionals found several corpses were missing vital organs. Israel
has been suspected in the past of organ theft due to its policy of
holding the bodies of killed Palestinians in the Cemetery of Numbers in
subfreezing temperatures, thus preserving the corpses. A CNN report
dating back to 2009 states that organs were: “Harvested from
Palestinians and foreign workers.”<br>Among the more visible atrocities
was the rounding up of Palestinian civilians on a football field in
Gaza, which even mainstream media picked up. However, Sky News, for
example, included a disclaimer beneath the video: “The IDF has told Sky
News the individuals detained are treated in accordance with
international law.” Where is it inscribed in international law that
stripping detainees naked, torturing them and summarily executing them
is permissible? At this point, who is still taking the IDF’s rhetoric
seriously? Either idiots or willing collaborators.</p>
<p>Take this video, where an Israeli soldier brags about killing a
twelve-year-old girl and jokingly laments that there are no babies left
to kill in Gaza. Are there any forthcoming excuses from entities and
individuals supporting Israel’s ethnic cleansing? The IDF’s standard
statements can no longer pose as a veneer for Israeli colonial violence,
whether this is committed by the state’s institutions or individual
acts. And international silence has been so consistent that the
parameters for what constitutes a human rights violation or, indeed, a
war crime have been expanded beyond recognition.</p>
<p>What we are witnessing in Gaza must not be separated from the UN’s deafening silence since 1948.</p>
<p><em>-Ramona Wadi is an independent researcher, freelance journalist,
book reviewer and blogger. Her writing covers a range of themes in
relation to Palestine, Chile and Latin America. Her article appeared in
MEMO.</em></p></div>
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