The intentional starvation of civilians, the intentional thirst of civilians, the intentional damage to civilian infrastructure, are war crimes. [Israel’s Minister of Defense] seems to suggest them as war methods. It is There is no context in which such a policy can be legal.
https://t.co/8QEOhZeZU3 — Michael Sfard מיכאל ספרד (@sfardm) October 9, 2023
Israel is carrying out the most intensive bombing ever against Gaza, a trapped and largely civilian community. Israel has cut Gaza’s supply of food, water, fuel and electricity. Netanyahu calls this an ‘all-out war”, but it is simple battery by one of the world’s foremost armed forces against a trapped population. The blockade, the collective punishment of civilians and the targeting of civilian structures amount to a massive, unfolding crime.
Hamas has killed unarmed civilians, taken civilian hostages and is now threatening to execute them if Israel continues to bomb residential buildings without warning. Notwithstanding all the provocations, Hamas’s crimes against civilians dishonour the valid struggle for Palestinian rights.
We are awash with the pain of all these losses and the horror of each fresh report of accumulating deaths and damage. These days are overwhelming us.
All hell has broken loose. Each armed party is now taking out its rage on civilians, and the coming days threaten to be a protracted, depraved denouement. There are sparks flying and there are deaths in the West Bank and southern Lebanon. The US has moved warships closer, surely a statement of the potential of this fire, this time to become a regional conflagration.
Stop it – it is spiralling to everyone’s detriment. As the UN Special Rapporteur has said, the first act must be for this to return to the realm of law and accountability.
But that is not enough: within the whole context of the occupation, any state with a trace of wisdom and humanity must get behind a credible path to solutions based on law and our universal rights to live in safety and self-determination. That is the only way to make this violence the last violence.
For anyone to be safe, Palestinians must be free and civilians must be protected.
Free all the civilians now – those taken hostage, those held in Israeli military jails and those who are trapped behind the blockade walls.
Alternative Jewish Voices of Aotearoa – New Zealand
Sh'ma Koleinu - Alternative Jewish Voices (NZ) 