CITIZENS OF ISRAEL MUST CALL THEIR GOVERNMENT TO ORDER
Statement from the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust
HUMANITARIAN AID UNDER ATTACK:
CITIZENS OF ISRAEL MUST CALL THEIR GOVERNMENT TO ORDER
The United Nations aid agency UNRWA has stopped delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza because its supply routes are not being protected by Israel, the occupying power. This represents yet another fundamental transgression of the laws of war that the world body seems powerless to stop.
In a statement on Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, called on Israel to meet its obligations to “ensure aid flows into Gaza safely” and to “refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers”.
The US-based charity World Central Kitchen also paused its operations at the weekend after an Israeli airstrike killed three of its workers. In April, seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed in an Israeli drone strike that Israel later described as a mistake.
The laws of war, also known as international humanitarian law, were developed after World War Two to set parameters for what can and can’t be done by parties to armed conflicts. The laws seek to minimize human suffering and protect civilians, the injured and prisoners of war.
They aimed to ensure that what led to the genocide of Jewish people would not happen again. What a cruel irony that the Israeli government that claims to be representatives of the descendants of survivors of that genocide are today perpetrators of the genocide in Gaza.
The world has witnessed unspeakable violations of human rights in Gaza over the past 14 months, including attacks on civilians, civilian infrastructure, and medical facilities. There are more child amputees in Gaza than anywhere else in the world.
Even so, for the State of Israel to decline to discharge its responsibilities to protect life-saving food, clothing and medical supplies, further torturing a people in their greatest ever time of need, is breaking new ground of inhumanity.
The State of Israel’s war-machine is running amok, bristling with US and EU-supplied arms, and bullet proofed from being held to international account by the United States’ veto power at the United Nations.
The State of Israel’s uncontrite responses to South Africa’s genocide charges at the International Court of Justice, and the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court, confirm its contempt for both global opinion and global instruments.
The people who are best-placed to stop the State of Israel’s calamitous actions are the people of Israel, many of whom have already had the courage to protest Prime Minister Netanyahu’s over-willing brutality.
Ten years ago the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu addressed a letter to citizens of Israel.
“It is becoming more and more clear that politicians and diplomats are failing to come up with answers, and that responsibility for brokering a sustainable solution to the crisis in the Holy Land rests with civil society and the people of Israel and Palestine themselves,” he said.
“My plea to the people of Israel is to see beyond the moment, to see beyond the anger at feeling perpetually under siege, to see a world in which Israel and Palestine can coexist – a world in which mutual dignity and respect reign.”
It is time for the people of Israel, of whom there are many who desire sustainable peace that only justice will deliver, to send Netanyahu a very clear message: “You don’t represent us!”
Signed: DR MAMPHELA RAMPHELE, Chairperson of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust.
Ends…
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