October 7th, 2023, will be remembered alongside 9/11, in the sense, where were you on that day? Firstly, let me start by saying, that Israel’s right to defend itself has been mentioned by many commentators and politicians from across the world on hundreds of occasions. Israel’s right to defend itself is not being questioned, but what is being questioned is, when that tipped over into unapologetic retribution and as a way of consolidating Netanyahu’s single-minded and selfish political ambition. He has aligned himself with the far-right messianic Jews whose only goal is “From the river to the sea not a single Palestinian will be seen.” Netanyahu’s coalition and the IDF can now be called war criminals. Yet we, not me, but Western democracies riddled by Holocaust guilt, cannot call out what is happening in Gaza as crimes against humanity. The IDF has killed thirty thousand innocents and has turned Gaza into a lunar landscape, a landscape created according to experts by Israel’s use of 70,000 tons of explosives. To put this into some context that is more than the total tonnage of explosives dropped on Hamburg, London, Dresden, and Hiroshima during the Second World War. The Israeli electorate is now proud of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s leadership, with polls showing that he would win the largest number of seats if an election were called. It now seems that a large part of the Israeli electorate has lost its moral compass. What is clear is that there is a direct positive correlation between the number killed by the IDF and Netanyahu’s political fortunes. Mr Security has turned a disastrous security failure into a political victory.
All this despite the International Court of Justice saying Israel has committed war crimes, as the occupying power has violated international conventions by abusing the Palestinian people, weaponising the availability of water and food as a military tactic, and deliberately targeting and destroying civilian infrastructure like schools and hospitals. Israeli forces have killed medics and aid workers in their hundreds and behind the fog of war continue to engage in reinforcing its version of apartheid throughout the occupied territories. The IDF has forced innocent Gazan women and children to so-called “safe places “. We now understand this to be a euphemism for a different graveyard. In addition, the ICC is also now seeking warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant on the grounds that they have committed war crimes. However, Western democracies in particular the US continue to provide Israel with weapons to continue its carnage. The International Criminal Court has also reaffirmed Israel’s illegal occupation, but quite frankly Netanyahu and his henchmen and now, a majority of the Israeli public do not give a toss. Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza’s civilians breaks a fundamental law at the heart of the Geneva Convention, which is the prohibition on collective punishment. This means civilians should not be forced to pay the price for the actions of their leaders and armed forces. This tiny Jewish state that was bullied for decades by its autocratic neighbours is now the bully in the region with a weapons arsenal second to none and with long arms. In addition, like them, it has lost its humanity and has undermined its moral foundation.
Let me be clear, what Hamas did on the 7th of October can be fairly described as a pogrom. Hamas at their core are religious fundamentalists with not a democratic bone in their corporate body and for them, I shed no tears. For the 30,000 innocent women and children that have been killed, my pain runs deep. Jewish people in Nazi Germany were seen as less than human, often being referred to as vermin, and then murdered on an industrial scale. Now, it seems that many Israelis see Palestinians in a similar way, coining phrases like collateral damage when referring to the killing of innocent Palestinians.
Israel has barred Western journalists from entering Gaza, why, because they do not want journalists to record evidence of war crimes, nothing to do with their safety. The Committee to Protect Journalists has reported that 128 journalists have been killed during the year-long assault on Gaza.
It seems that the hypocrisy and some would argue complicity being shown by Israel’s allies and friends in allowing Israel to indulge in war crimes like a pariah state, is beyond credulity. The worry seems to be that any pressure on the current Israeli regime may result in Israel looking elsewhere for support, being called out as anti-Semitic or even leading to the loss of an election. The US and European democracies groomed the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussain, the Assads, Mubarak and Gaddafi so, why stop with the narcissist Netanyahu who is eating the hand that feeds him. Defending the indefensible is the current diplomatic stance of Israel’s Western allies which negates any real meaning to the phrase coined after the discovery of the Holocaust “Never Again.”
The stance being taken by our Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been at best disappointing, unable to criticise Israel’s genocidal tactics. As a former human rights lawyer, he cannot even get behind the stance of the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice. I guess he just doesn’t want to upset the wife or the Israeli Lobby groups that have funded half of his cabinet, as highlighted in an article published in Declassified by John McEvoy.
I grew up in a family that supported the fledging Jewish state with a father who also believed that Palestinians must be given the right to self-determination in an adjacent Palestinian state. That was 50 years ago, and little has changed.
The 7th of October must be remembered and mourned. Still, the sheer scale and brutality with which Israel has executed its retribution, not defence, must also never be forgotten and called out for what it is, ethnic cleansing and genocide. If it is good enough for Israeli spokespersons to call Hamas genocidal well, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Just to finish, God’s chosen people, seriously.
Suneil Sharma
11th October 2024
The Gob 
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