By Iqbal Jassat
It is abundantly clear that despite various attempts by the apartheid regime to garner and maintain global support for its terrorism in Gaza, it has turned out to be a dismal failure.
Gaza’s killing fields by the settler colonial regime has now entered the seventh month, without any reprieve for the besieged Strip’s millions of refugees.
Official records reveal that on day 200 (April 23) of the barbaric Zionist genocide, 3,025 massacres have been perpetrated, 42,510 innocent civilians mercilessly butchered, including 15,780 children slaughtered.
An estimated 7,000 missing under the rubble and more than 76,000 injured. Most infrastructure destroyed as well as 70% of all homes, all universities, 33 out of 36 hospitals. In the West Bank the Israeli army and settlers killed 486 Palestinians and injured more than 4700.
In addition, Netanyahu’s evil famine strategy has formed part of his war cabinet’s tactic to starve to death millions.
To compound the apartheid regime’s criminal conduct, the corruption-laden Netanyahu falsely implicated UNRWA as aiding and abetting “terrorists”, resulting in suspension of funding and a halt of its humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees.
Sadly for the recipients, unsupported allegations against UNRWA saw a shameful rush by western governments to cut $450m funding at a time when “people were dying in droves”, as described by news media.
Months later however, the world is now told that Israeli allegations have been unproven. An inquiry – a rigorous one – led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, supported by three well-respected research institutes, concluded that there is no evidence for the claim that significant numbers of UNRWA employees have Hamas or Islamic Jihad ties.
That this decisive conclusion by the Colonna inquiry refutes Israel’s false claims, it is left to be seen whether western governments will revert to funding UNRWA, thus striking a blow to Netanyahu’s malicious war aims. Or will they continue to drag their feet, as is the case now?
If they fail to recommence funding, Palestinians may not be faulted for believing that the West remains hostage to the Netanyahu regime’s lies and vengeful genocide.
Concurrently another significant report has been issued castigating Israel’s bloody assault on Gaza’s medical institutions and the denial of healthcare. The author is a South African doctor, Tlaleng Mofokeng, who is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health.
In her scathing report, Mofokeng emphasized her difficulty in gathering data on the number of people needing medical evacuation due to the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
But she has been absolutely clear that the world was witnessing a “genocide” in Gaza.
“Not only is Israel causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments, but it and their allies are also knowingly and intentionally imposing famine, prolonged malnutrition, and dehydration.”
At a press conference in Geneva, Mofokeng did not mince her words when she said that as a practicing medical doctor, she bears witness, the very practice of medicine is under attack.
“This has been a war on the right to health and underlying determinants of health. The healthcare infrastructure in Gaza has been completely obliterated and the right to health has been decimated at every level.
“The conditions in Gaza are incompatible with the realization of the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
“Not only is Israel killing and causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments, it and their allies are also knowingly and intentionally imposing famine, prolonged malnutrition, and dehydration.”
She called on leaders within the multilateral system, regional blocks, academia, civil society, philanthro-capitalists, and leaders in global health to abandon their strategy of a” self-imposed passiveness” and so called “quiet diplomacy”.
“People are dying. I call on you yet again, to use all powers and authority vested in you to not perpetuate the pacification and genocide of the people of Gaza.”
Interestingly, students at US universities have emerged as a potent force demanding an end to complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza.
Professor Sami Al-Arian’s observation about the ongoing protests sums it up perfectly:
“What’s happening across US university campuses is unprecedented. I lived four decades in the US, 28 years of which were in academic settings. During my time, it was a very challenging struggle to present an anti-Zionist narrative. But the passion, courage, humanity, creativity, and determination displayed these days by students across US campuses make me proud. The Zionist grip on US society is weakening and waning”.
By all accounts it is abundantly clear that despite various attempts by the apartheid regime to garner and maintain global support for its terrorism in Gaza, it has turned out to be a dismal failure.
Indeed, enormous resources allocated by Israel to overwhelm news coverage of the horrendous genocide from the narrow perspective of “Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism”, has been a fundamental pillar of Netanyahu’s goal.
As author Ralph Nader points out, throughout history, military empires have reduced their victims, their subjugated, and their abducted to a state of “The Others.” The political and mass media institutions usually follow suit by supporting their empire’s predatory policies with slanted coverage.
Remarkable therefore that alongside the armed resistance by Palestinian freedom fighters to withstand 200 days of relentless bombings, the images of Gaza’s devastation and eyewitness accounts by medics, journalists and displaced families, has not allowed the Zionist regime to escape global outrage.
– Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit: www.mediareviewnet.com
