By John Pickard
The genocde in Gaza continues. Citing the Gaza Health Ministry, Haaretz reported that 60 Palestinians were killed and 344 wounded by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip in 24 hours. “27 of the dead and 281 of the wounded were aid seekers” Haaretz reported, “…people arriving at hospitals for humanitarian assistance such as food, medical care, or shelter”.
This raises the figure for those killed, merely for seeking food aid, to nearly two thousand. In total, over 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza. This is from a population of around two and a quarter million, and if this figure was multiplied up to the equivalent of the UK population, it would be 1.7m killed, an astonishing figure.
The Israeli government, meanwhile, is fuming at the decision of the Australian government to recognise the state of Palestine and revoke the visa of far-right Knesset Member, Simcha Rothman, thereby denying him entry into the country. Predictably, some British commentators have accused the Australian government of ‘antisemitism’, being (like Netanyahu) unwilling to distinguish criticism of Israel from dislike of Jews as Jews.
Dissent is growing in Israel
In preparation for an new ground offensive by the IDF around Gaza City, the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee of the Knesset voted narrowly (but only eight votes to seven) to extend the period during which the government can issue up 430,000 reserve call-up orders. Whatever Netanyahu and the Knesset want, however, and what takes place may not be the same thing. There is growing disenchantment among Jewish reservists about their Prime Minister’s “forever war”. Reports have suggested that up to half of reservists being called up are not reporting for duty.
Dissent among reservists is only one part of the growing opposition among Israelis and among Jewish people world-wide to Netanyahu’s policy in Gaza. Sunday saw the biggest anti-government demonsratiion in Tel Aviv for years, as 150,000 participants – including many on strike – took part. The official Israeli trade union federation, the Histradut is embedded in the Zionist establishment and did not support the call for a general strike, but thousands of workers took time off anyway.
To be clear, this protest was far from being explicitly pro-Palestinian. Even though it issued a call for a ceasefire to return the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, there would have been many protesters willing to support a temporary ceasefire for that purpose and a resumption of the war afterwards. But the scale of the demonstration itself and the growing anger at Netanyahu – who responds by accusing them of being Hamas ‘sympathisers’ – is an indication of the deepening divide in Israel. And there are many Israelis, albeit a minority, who are appalled by the genocide in Gaza.
“Jews – Rebel. Now!”
Last week, a well-know former politician, Avraham Burg, called for a million Jews worldwide to protest. Burg, who was a member of the Knesset and first Speaker to have been born in Israel after the declaration of independence in 1948, also headed at one time the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organisation.
He called for a million Jews to file a collective complaint to the International Court of Justice over “crimes against humanity…committed in our name and under the false banner of our Jewish identity in Gaza.” This is not a rejection of our people, he said, “it is a defense of its soul…,” His post, entitled “Jews – Rebel. Now!”, was published on his Substack.
The Palestinians in Gaza, suffering indescribable torments of bombing and deliberate starvation, are bitterly opposed – despite their horrendous situation – to being ethnically-cleansed from their land. The same goes for their fellow Palestinians in the West Bank.
Sooner or later something has to give: either in the Arab states, where the mass of workers have seen their political leaders stand by and do nothing while a genocide takes place. Or in Israel, where the population are trapped in a non-stop war and in a state despised by workers across the world. Or in both. The deliberate starvation, the massacres and the protests cannot go on forever.
[Feature picture, from the Washington Post feed on BlueSky, showing protesters in Israel blocking road with burning tyres]
