Israeli forces began the assault, called "Operation Autumn Clouds", on Beit Hanoun and the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning, November 1, 2006. Since that time, Israeli forces have continued to launch air strikes on houses and civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip, razing large areas in Beit Hanoun as well as in neighboring areas.
I must ask the question: Why is this massacre being ignored in the U.S. press? Is it because we Americans are too preoccupied with ourselves and our recent elections? Is it because the killing of a mere 86 people is not sufficient to warrant our attention against the background of murder in Iraq, where that many people are killed on a daily basis? Or perhaps, is it because reporting the massacre would not serve the best interests of a particular U.S./Israeli agenda, which is to justify the “war on terror” and its crucial battlefront, the Arab-Israeli conflict?
We have been programmed by the U.S. media to believe that since Palestinians are supporters of Hamas, they are terrorists, and hence legitimate targets for Israeli violence. Just how much violence occurred? During the week of November 2-8 alone, 86 people were killed, according to the Weekly Report from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Following are some details of the report:
Eighty-six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, 52 of whom were civilians, including 16 children and 10 women.
Out of the 86 killed by Israeli forces, 70 of the victims were from Beit Hanoun and nearby areas in the northern Gaza Strip.
Seventeen of the victims, mostly women and children, came from the same family and were killed when Israeli forces shelled their home.
Some 254 Palestinians, including 58 women and 71 children, were wounded by Israeli forces.
Predictably, the U.S. vetoed United Nations Security Council Resolution 8867 which would have condemned the Israeli massacre in Gaza. Concerning the wording of the resolution, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton felt that it "does not display an even-handed characterization of the recent events in Gaza, nor does it advance the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace". Eighty-six human beings have been killed and the condemnation of this outrage would not advance the cause of peace, according to the U.S. ambassador.
And what of an even-handed characterization, to use Bolton’s words, of U.S. support of Israel? The U.S. has used its veto power over 40 times to reject United Nations resolutions that would have censured Israel for its occupation of Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian territories and its aggressions into them. What makes this particular veto stand out is that despite Israeli admission of responsibility for the deaths, the U.S. vetoed it anyway, perhaps out of habit.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted that at least 18 of the deaths were due to a “technical failure” and not a result of Israeli policy. Lest one think that the tragedy that happened in Beit Hanoun was some sort of an anomaly instead of the result of planned, premeditated attacks, consider that since June 25, 2006:
Some 342 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 64 children and 15 women, have been killed by Israeli forces.
At least 1186 Palestinian civilians, including 344 children and 49 women, have been wounded by gunfire from Israeli forces.
At least 292 air-to-surface missiles and hundreds of artillery shells have been fired at Palestinian civilian and military targets in the Gaza Strip.
All of this firepower has been unleashed on Gaza, supposedly in retaliation for the launching of the inaccurate, primitive, home-manufactured Qassam rockets that have killed 8 people and injured 16. Ironically, those last killed were two Arab Israelis in March of 2006.
At least elsewhere in the world, outrage over this atrocity is being expressed. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema called the violence in the Gaza Strip "unacceptable" and declared, "There are some who say that the tragedy in Beit Hanoun was a mistake. But there was no mistake. What happened in Beit Hanoun is a result of political choices." In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini stated in stronger language, "The indifference toward the Israeli atrocities runs contrary to the United Nations Charter’s articles on genocide and crimes against humanity."
What shall we do? Shall we remain in our isolated shell of blindness and indifference and allow the Palestinian genocide to continue, or shall we endeavor to make sincere and strenuous efforts to halt Israeli aggression and strive for peace? If we really want to see peace, then we must demand that Israel stop these brutal assaults and recognize the democratically-elected government of Palestine. We must also demand that the U.S. stop acting as a roadblock to peace through its veto power at the UN Security Council and begin to act as the international peace-broker and guardian of human rights it claims to be.
MA/HG
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