THE forced migration of up to one million people from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip is a war crime and a completely avoidable human tragedy.
Given that Israel has already denied fuel, electricity and water to Gaza, and bombed the Rafah crossing point to Egypt, one can imagine the full horror of the conditions for both the migrants and those already living in the overcrowded south of the territory.
This is an avoidable human tragedy because it is entirely caused by the Israeli government. But for Israel’s ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotovely, interviewed on Sky News yesterday morning, “There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” and at the same time, Hamas is to blame, because of the attacks on Israel just over a week ago.
Israel not only does not care about Palestinian lives; it is actively seeking to destroy them and force the remaining Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip. At a press conference last Thursday, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible” for the attack on October 7.
“It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved,” he added. “They could have risen.”
That’s a twisted and self-serving logic. Just as Israel’s citizens are not Hotovely or Herzog, so Gaza’s people are not Hamas.
Interviewed on BBC Newsnight last Friday Amir Avivi from the IDF called for Palestinian civilians to leave the “war zone” of Gaza and cross into Egypt.
That’s not a new plan. For decades Egypt was aware of it. And you can bet that, once the people of Gaza are forced across the border into camps in the Sinai Desert, Israel will seal the border and not let them back. Here is a high-ranking Israeli official talking about ethnic cleansing.
A video circulating on the internet, showing Israeli citizens urinating on the bodies of dead Hamas fighters, demonstrates the degree to which Palestinians are being denied humanity by Israel.
That Israeli civilians were killed by Hamas fighters is not in dispute. But there is reason to doubt some of the wilder claims. Israel’s government has not confirmed the report that Palestinians beheaded Israeli babies and, according to the Grayzone, a key source for this claim is David Ben Zion, an Israeli soldier and extremist settler, who incited violent riots against Palestinians earlier this year.
That Israel’s assault on Gaza has not yet begun may well be due to the international outcry that has already taken place and will magnify.
Despite the rhetoric in support of “Israel’s right to defend itself” from the likes of Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden, they will be acutely aware of the protests already taking place around the world, and the risks of the conflict widening if and when Israel invades.
The dangers of a wider war are real, with Israel already bombing targets in southern Lebanon in response to anti-tank rockets fired by Hezbollah, Iran warning that it “could not remain a spectator” if Gaza is invaded and the Iraqi parliament calling for the activation of the Arab Defence Treaty against Israel.
The deployment of US and British naval forces to the eastern Mediterranean is intended to deter other countries from getting involved, but there is no guarantee that the situation will not spiral out of control.
It is therefore essential to build on last weekend’s demonstrations to exert maximum pressure on our own government to force Israel not to go ahead with the attack on Gaza, and instead to negotiate with the Palestinians and recognise their right to their own state.
The TUC’s statement on Israel and Palestine, issued on Friday, is an important step in this regard, and the call by the organisers of last Saturday’s London demonstration for an even bigger national event this coming Saturday, with trade union branch banners, deserves mass support.
