Towards Justice for All in the Holy Land

By TANIA ZIVKOVICH: My thanks go to MECA, the Middle East Children’s Alliance, whose courageous work in Gaza has inspired me to work harder for peace.

Once again Israel has shocked the world with its escalating brutality. The collective cry of humanity is: STOP—the killing, the torture, the genocide! The vow of “Never Again” lies in ashes buried in the rubble of Gaza. Yet the U.S. continues to arm Israel. Now we are learning that the Israeli war machine is so out of control that it is hugely directed by AI with minimal human oversight. April 5th Democracy Now hosted Israeli investigative reporter Yuval Abraham from online magazine +972 revealing shocking details of Israel’s targeted assassination program called Lavendar and Where’s Daddy?

37,000 males are on their hit list with no age limit. For low value targets they permit 15 innocents killed as collateral damage, with high value targets up to 300. For efficacy, they prefer to strike Daddy at home with his family and kill everyone.

On April 1st Israeli occupation forces withdrew from a devastating two-week raid on Gaza’s largest Hospital Al-Shifa, leaving behind a wasteland of death and destruction, dead bodies everywhere and 1,000 area homes destroyed. Doctors, patients, and health care workers were stripped naked, bound, blind-folded and taken away to certain torture and possible death. No food, water, or medicine was allowed in. Hundreds were killed—all Hamas according to Israel, of course. Al-Shifa (“healing” in Arabic) had already been devastated in November by the IDF and was attempting to rebirth itself and continue serving the desperate community. Built in 1946, it represented 30% of Gaza’s health care capacity. They do the impossible, dealing with the most horrific injuries with scant supplies, while operating under the terror of 24/7 Israeli bombing. Then, they can expect to ultimately be arrested and tortured for their efforts. The former head of Al-Shifa, arrested in November, is still detained.

Next, the IDF targeted the World Central Kitchen team, with another drone assassination. The seven aid workers—six internationals and their Palestinian comrade—were traveling in a convoy of three clearly marked vehicles and coordinating with the Israelis in real time when the lead vehicle (a new armored car) was hit. They stopped and transferred, contacting the IDF, and continued in two vehicles. After the second vehicle was hit, they stopped and transferred their wounded into the third vehicle and tried to flee. But the attack continued with multiple strikes and they were all murdered—joining 200 Palestinian aid workers who have already been martyred. The difference being, this group was primarily white foreigners from countries that support Israel. Of course, this has ignited international outrage. They had just unloaded 100 tons of food in Gaza City and were returning to their boat to unload 240 tons more. Instead, the World Central Kitchen suspended its operations in Gaza and sailed away. Founder Chef José Andrés denounced the attack as deliberate. Netanyahu said: “It was a tragic mistake.” U.S. spokesman John Kirby, sneering at the reporter who asked the question, refused to say if Israel had broken international law and said: “To date, the State Department had found no incidence where Israel had violated International Humanitarian Law.”

Biden is “outraged and heart-broken” and on April 4th called Netanyahu to demand an immediate ceasefire to get aid into Gaza and to empower his negotiators to make a deal to free the hostages or U.S. weapons might be restricted. The same day, however, the Biden regime transferred 1,800 2000-pound bombs, 500 500-pound bombs, and 25 F-35 jets to Israel and is pressing Congress for an $18 billion sale of F-15 jets. Since Israel has been provoking Iran, most notably by the recent attack on their Consulate in Syria, killing top generals, we can speculate that soon Iran will retaliate and Israel will be demanding more weapons “to defend itself.”

Part of Biden’s “heartbreak” is the approximately ten% of Democrats who are protest-voting “uncommitted” in the primaries and his realization that he may lose the election. And Jill Biden is quoted as saying, “Stop it, Joe, just stop it!”

Well over 30 people, mostly children, have already starved to death. The mamas are crying, “Our children are dying in front of us and we are unable to do anything for them.” The average daily caloric intake per person in Northern Gaza is 245. The major aid agency, UNRWA , has been crippled by defunding because of Israeli slander and forbidden to aid the North where mass starvation is looming. The World Central Kitchen was another vital agency. Using starvation as a weapon is a war crime.

This is the Zionist-colonial project—genocide, ethnic cleansing (“transfer” as it was called) by the most brutal means available. With one main goal always at the forefront for more than 100 years—get rid of the Arabs—they are trespassers on the land of Israel. To quote David Ben-Gurion in 1938: “I am for compulsory transfer; I do not see anything immoral in it.” To paraphrase Israeli historian Ilan Pappé’s The Ethnic-cleansing of Palestine, the 1948 creation of Israel resulted in one million Palestinians expelled from their homes at gunpoint, multitudes massacred, and hundreds of villages destroyed: The Nakba.

This conflict did not start on Oct. 7th and it will never end until there is justice for all in the Holy Land.

Gaza Update:

Israeli occupation forces have withdrawn from Khan Younis, leaving behind a horror scene of devastation and the scent of death. Yet people are starting to return, hoping to find something left of their homes. Netanyahu is vowing the ground invasion of Rafah will happen soon and that a date has been set. Biden’s red-line and scolding phone call didn’t seem to impress Netanyahu and appears to have largely been a PR stunt as the weapons keep flowing to Israel. Now the weapons package containing $14 billion for Israel that was passed by the Senate may be coming up soon for a House vote. This is the time to increase our calling campaign. Calling campaigns can be very effective IF many people call often. This means us. See my previous article in La Jicarita (https://lajicarita.wordpress.com/2024/02/16/stop-the-genocide-in-gaza/) for a full list of government numbers as well as a list of some aid organizations. Forty Congress members are now calling on Biden to halt weapons transfers to Israel, including Nancy Pelosi, a die-hard Israel supporter. Senator Elizabeth Warren has called this genocide. Urge your Congress members to sign onto the letter, vote no to more weapons to Israel, demand refunding to UNRWA, and hold Biden accountable. UNRWA accepts donations from individuals as well as nations. Now is the time to act with passion to stop the genocide.