Mumia on Israel: settler, colonialist, apartheid state

This occurred under George W. Bush, with the U.S. neocon administration winking, nodding and blowing kisses of approval.

Today, under neoliberal rule, we see that something indeed has changed under President Barack Obama: It has gotten worse.

For this time, Israel may double the death toll from July 2008. It’s already close, with 1,350 deaths of Palestinians [more than 1,900 as of Aug. 11 — WW].

When one looks at the news, one must remember the old adage that “in war, the first casualty is truth.” For despite the [public relations] war that projects Israel as “avoiding civilian casualties” in their battle against the government of Hamas, the fact is Israel intentionally targets civilians, which is a war crime.

Don’t take my word for it.

Zeev Schiff is Israel’s pre-eminent military analyst, and he has stated in Ha’aretz newspaper, “The Israeli Army has always struck civilian populations.” Schiff added that they did so “purposely and consciously.”

Schiff explained that the Army “has never distinguished civilian (from military) targets… (but) purposely attacked civilian targets.” (Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe, “Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians.” Chicago, Il.: Haymarket, 2010, p. 82)

One wouldn’t know this listening to U.S. news coverage, which makes Palestinian suffering virtually invisible while privileging Israeli voices and perspectives, even when absurd.

Lost too is the real source of this carnage: over half a century of Israeli violations of international law by massive land theft, water theft and the imposition of a cruel military occupation by a settler, colonialist state which had no use for the Indigenous peoples of Palestine, and yet lusts for its lands.

Gaza has become an open air prison — the largest on Earth — presided over by an apartheid government that kills its inhabitants like it’s killing chickens.

Obama, echoing his predecessor, Bush, talks about Israel’s massacres by saying, “Israel has the right to defend itself.”

But one wonders: Doesn’t Palestine have the same rights, as well?