Israel's recent assault on the Gaza Strip demonstrated once again the brutal nature of the ongoing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. In the Israeli military offensive, 1,434 Palestinians, including 960 civilians, were killed, according to the Palestinian Human Rights Center in Gaza. Three Israeli civilians and 10 soldiers were killed in the same operation. A recent report by Amnesty International comprehensively details various Israeli war crimes during the three-week conflict. Israel stands accused of committing numerous war crimes, including the wanton destruction of homes and targeting of civilian infrastructure, blocking the entry of essential goods and supplies to the Gaza Strip, as well as the use of white phosphorous and cluster munitions in densely populated areas.
A recent article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz featured the testimonies of Israeli soldiers who described how the rules of engagement were loosely adhered to during the assault. The report includes one soldier's account of witnessing an elderly woman being shot by a sniper.
According to the squad leader, "The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight away. In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them."
Following the ensuing argument between the squad leader and the commander, the squad leader recounts, "After the orders were changed, the soldiers complained, 'We should kill everyone [in the center of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist.'"
The Amnesty report went on to classify the blockade against Gaza as collective punishment. "The prolonged blockade of Gaza…which had already been in place for some 18 months before the current fighting began, amounts to collective punishment of its entire population."
The Fourth Geneva Convention specifically prohibits collective punishment under Article 33, which states, "No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
In a recent lecture at MIT, political activist and professor Noam Chomsky explained in his retrospective "Parsing Gains of Gaza War," New York Times correspondent Ethan Bronner cited this achievement as one of the most significant of the gains. Israel calculated that it would be advantageous to appear to "go crazy," causing vastly disproportionate terror, a doctrine that traces back to the 1950s. "The Palestinians in Gaza got the message on the first day,"
Bronner wrote, "When Israeli war planes struck numerous targets simultaneously in the middle of a Saturday morning, some 200 were killed instantly, shocking Hamas and indeed all of Gaza."
The tactic of "going crazy" appears to have been successful. Bronner said that there are "limited indications that the people of Gaza felt such pain from this war that they will seek to rein in Hamas."
It is important for young Americans to remember that we have a direct impact on this conflict. Our tax dollars are what help fuel the conflict militarily and the diplomatic immunity provided by our government to the Israeli regime is what has allowed Israel to commit war crimes for decades. From 2001-2007, our government, by way of an estimated $20 billion in military aid, has armed Israel to the teeth.
The advanced weapons that are at the disposal of the Israeli military are used to carry out collective punishment campaigns against a population under continuous occupation. The only way that this conflict can ever truly be ended is for Israel to comply with International law and consensus, as outlined by United Nations Resolution 242, and end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories: the longest continuous occupation in modern history.
In the 21st century, we are witnessing something unprecedented: the destruction of a nation and the extermination of a people. Israel is in the latter stages of its long standing project: the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. This project is continuing in the remaining 20 percent of Palestine. We as Americans must pressure our leaders to end support of this policy once and for all.
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