Israel’s decision to deprive Palestinian civilians living in Gaza of access to basic needs violates international law, former Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth said.
“In the realm of humanitarian necessities, the Israeli government has imposed a siege on all of Gaza,” Roth said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
Roth, who now teaches at Princeton University, added that the atrocities committed by the Hamas armed group against Israeli civilians do not justify the “revenge” and “collective punishment” against Palestinian civilians.
“A basic premise of international humanitarian law is that war crimes by one side never justify war crimes by the other. There’s an independent obligation by both sides to respect the laws of war.
“It increasingly does look like the Israel military is proceeding without adequate care to spare civilians. And that kind of indiscriminate and disproportionate attack … is in itself a war crime.”
Most Western countries have to be seen as pro-Israel no matter what to deter accusations of anti-semitism or pro-nazism. Charlie Hebdo used to be scathing satire and now is just the magazine for Islamophobic European neolibs or conservatives. Its bush league satire and really low effort and blatant racism to troll Muslims.
It's an interesting theory. Big if true. It just seems far too risky when you know most of the western world still supports Israel.
Though if you can pull it off, wow, and they could probably have predicted that it would cause a lot of internal division among Americans which only benefits Russia.
At first I thought this was about a terrorist attack that killed more than a thousand denying their human right to live. Then I remembered those didn't have the right to exist in the first place.
The whole point of human rights, is that they can't be taken away from people. Both populations have the right to exist. To say otherwise simply invites unending religious war.
There are still over a hundred hostages. Crank down on Gaza...no electricity, etc...and you'll eventually get some intel on where they are at. It's war, and they put themselves in this position.
It’s war, and they put themselves in this position.
Did they also put themselves in the inhumane conditions that sparked this war too? Or is decades of inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people immaterial to the situation?
Because Israel is a good part of the reason Hamas is as powerful as they are, so I guess they put themselves in this position too?
I assure you, Palestinian civilians didnt put themselves in Gaza. The Israeli government created the ghetto prison known as Gaza and relegated the Palestinians to it.
Egypt took Gaza in the '48 war, built camps and put Palestinians (then called Arabs, the word "Palestinian" still most often referred to Jews) in them. Nobody much cared until Israel took the territory in the Six Day War and Egypt refused to take it back after.
Likewise Jordan annexed West Bank, built its camps, put Palestinians in them and held it until '67. Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt all built camps for Palestinians WITHIN their own borders and refused to assimilate them or allow them to become citizens. They used Palestinians as pawns in their quest to eliminate the infidel state. It didn't work. No one much cared unless the pawns can be used against Israel.
Palestinians who remained in Israel are now citizens with voting rights etc. Israel didn't chuck them in camps like their neighbours did.
The camps are now cities by the way. But no one calls them that, cause "camps" is better to use against Israel.