Gaza\u2019s Torment, Israel\u2019s Crimes, Our Responsibilities
\nNoam Chomsky
\nZ
\nJuly 12, 2014<\/p>\n
At 3am Gaza time, July 9, in the midst of Israel\u2019s latest exercise in savagery, I received a phone call from a young Palestinian journalist in Gaza. In the background, I could hear his infant child wailing, amidst the sounds of explosions and jet planes, targeting any civilian who moves, and homes as well. He just saw a friend of his in a car clearly marked \u201cpress\u201d blown away. And he heard shrieks next door after an explosion but can\u2019t go outside or he\u2019ll be a likely target. This is a quiet neighborhood, no military targets \u2013 except Palestinians who are fair game for Israel\u2019s high tech US-supplied military machine. He said that 70% of the ambulances have been destroyed, and that by then over 70 had been killed, and of the 300 or so wounded, about 2\/3 women and children. Few Hamas activists have been hit \u2013 or rocket launching sites. Just the usual victims.<\/p>\n
It is important to understand what life is like in Gaza when Israel\u2019s behavior is \u201crestrained,\u201d in between the regular manufactured crises like this one. A good sense is given in a report to UNRWA [Brief report to UNRWA: The Gaza Health Sector as of June 2014: PDF<\/a>] by Mads Gilbert<\/a>, the courageous and expert Norwegian physician who has worked extensively in Gaza, also throughout the vicious and murderous Cast Lead operation<\/a>. In every respect, the situation is disastrous. Just keeping to children, Gilbert reports: \u201cPalestinian children in Gaza are suffering immensely. A large proportion are affected by the man-made malnourishment regime caused by the Israeli imposed blockage. Prevalence of anaemia in children <2yrs in Gaza is at 72.8%, while prevalence of wasting, stunting, underweight have been documented at 34.3%, 31.4%, 31.45% respectively.\u201d And it gets worse as the report proceeds.\n\nWhen Israel is on \u201cgood behavior,\u201d more than two Palestinian children are killed every week, a pattern that goes back over 14 years. The underlying cause is the criminal occupation and the programs to reduce Palestinian life to bare survival in Gaza, while Palestinians are restricted to unviable cantons in the West Bank and Israel takes over what it wants, all in gross violation of international law and explicit Security Council resolutions, not to speak of minimal decency. And it will continue as long as it is supported by Washington and tolerated by Europe \u2013 to our everlasting shame.\n\n