Happy 4th of July. While we celebrate how the US fought against tyrants to achieve our own liberty, for over 70 years the US has been helping a foreign nation commit an ethnic cleansing to take liberty away from others. While we cheerfully listen to fireworks and gossip about Florida apartments collapsing into sinkholes, spend at least a moment to think of all the Palestinians who live in constant fear of US-made bombs bursting in air and all the Palestinians who've had their apartments collapse from US-made bombs. Somewhere along the road, our government lost the Spirit of '76.
On June 24th, investigative journalists from the New York Times published a 14-minute video with new information about the Israeli airstrikes on May 16 that murdered 44 Palestinians:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000007787471/israel-airstrikes-gaza.html
One of their main findings involved mapping the exact locations where Israelis used precision-guided bombs to target the densely-populated Rimal neighborhood in Gaza. Israel claimed they attacked a "Hamas command center" and tunnels underneath the residential apartment buildings, but provided no evidence that the alleged Hamas infrastructure existed. Israel claimed that the (presumably non-existent) Hamas infrastructure beneath civilian buildings would constitute a violation of international law, but by not warning civilians before bombing, Israel itself committed a war crime.
Not that "international laws" mean anything, since Israel will face no punishment. In fact, they admitted they hadn't bothered to warn civilians before, because no one punished them for it and therefore no one thought it was a big deal. This is just another of the countless crimes Israel has committed since its creation in 1948.
The bombs used by Israel were 2000 pounds, and the New York Times video says they are the heaviest type of bomb most militaries use on a regular basis. And Israel launched them not at heavily-fortified military targets, but at civilian apartment buildings. At least 4 of them were dropped near the apartment buildings which were completely destroyed. The bombs used US-made guidance systems. The video shows a serial number recovered from the debris, indicating at least one of the bombs had equipment manufactured by Boeing. (Boycott, divest, sanction, and arrest the apartheid profiteers at Boeing!)
Victims who were interviewed said they went to Rimal because they viewed it as safer than elsewhere in Gaza, as it was not attacked by Israel in their 2014 bombing campaign.
The Israeli Air Force launched over 100 guided bombs on May 16th, with over 30 of them landing in Rimal. Plotting the strikes on a map, Palestinian government buildings and a hospital were targeted, in addition to residential apartments. 3 days after the attacks, professional war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed a map which listed the destroyed apartment buildings as "not attacked".
The Israeli military said it hit all of their "intended targets", which we may assume were the apartment buildings, hospital, and civil government buildings.
In the 2-week-long campaign of carnage, Israel destroyed hospitals, a building serving as the headquarters for a few international media outlets, and over 2000 homes.
"The skyline of the metropolis – home to almost 600,000 people – has been significantly altered since May 10 when hostilities escalated.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/3/will-israel-be-held-accountable-for-war-crimes
Along with at least 2,000 housing units destroyed and more than 15,000 other units damaged, Gaza’s already run-down infrastructure was also badly hit.
The United Nations reported that six hospitals, nine healthcare centres and a water desalination plant were damaged during the fighting."
Amnesty International and others have said it was likely that the Israeli attack constituted a war crime, but good luck ever holding Israel accountable when the US gives it over $3.8 billion in military funding each year so it can carry out its ethnic cleansing. Good luck ever holding Israel accountable when the US vetoes every UN resolution which attempts to condemn Israeli crimes. Good luck ever holding Israel accountable when President Joe Biden gave Israel an additional $735 million in funding as a reward for their attacks in May. (Yes, you read that correctly, he gave an apartheid state MORE MONEY after they committed war crimes against civilians.)
A small handful of politicians, led by Rashida Tlaib, courageously called Israel an apartheid state after these attacks. For the first time in US history, mainstream politicians have begun correctly labeling Israel as an apartheid state which must be boycotted and sanctioned immediately. The discourse has forever changed. See my previous article for more information on this:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2021/05/mainstream-media-and-politicians-calling-out-israeli-apartheid.html
Right-wing propaganda heavily targeted Ilhan Omar after she joined in calling Israel an apartheid state (likely due to her courageously pointing out that US politicians on the Foreign Affairs Committee should not be expected to be obedient to Israel a few years ago). Republicans have recently attempted to censure Omar, Tlaib, Pressley, and AOC for their comments on Israel.
Not only did politicians call Israel out for its apartheid system, but mainstream journalists have been as well. During the attacks in May, Israel destroyed a building which housed the headquarters for Associated Press and Al-Jazeera, in order to obscure coverage of its war crimes. Considering that the US media has for decades been so silent on the plight of the Palestinians, would US-based investigative journalists, such as those at the New York Times, have bothered to investigate the attacks in more depth and write this story if Israel had not attacked the press? Or if heroic people like Rashida Tlaib had not demonstrated true leadership by taking a stand against apartheid? Maybe, maybe not. But what is certain is that the discourse on Israeli crimes is forever changing in the US, and we have a duty to ensure that passively ignoring and supporting apartheid never again becomes an acceptable position.
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New York Times journalist Evan Hill summarized the video on his Twitter (which also contains some additional details not stated in the video).
https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1408051858816520195
If you're too lazy to watch the full 14 minute video, at the very least, I would recommend watching the excerpts where they interviewed the victims of the attack:
Interview with the Qawlaq family. At least 2 bombs landed directly outside the apartment building they were in, causing it to collapse. They had gone there because they believed the neighborhood would be safer than elsewhere in Gaza. Shoukry Al Qawlaq was trapped in the rubble for 11 hours.
https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1408057468987580416
Interview with Riad Ishkontana. The bombing murdered his wife and four of his children. He and his daughter Suzy were trapped in the rubble for over 6 hours.
https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1408056377956782083
https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1408064221766578185
https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1408058001366290446
Of course, these interviews from the New York Times are far from the only accounts from Palestinian victims of apartheid. Just like the rest of us, thousands of Palestinians use websites like Twitter and directly share their deepest fears with the rest of the world, while most of us choose not to look.
https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1393618761454952454
https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1393162154535231488
https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1393731483601448960
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So, what can we do to stop Israeli crimes? Boycott, divest, and sanction Israel and any companies which profit from Israeli apartheid. In addition, we must boycott major donors of apartheid-supporting US politicians. Support from the American public, universities, and politicians caused America to become a leader of the anti-South-African-apartheid BDS movement in the 1980s. Now it has come time to do the same for the anti-Israeli-apartheid BDS movement.
Refer to the previous article for more a more detailed analysis:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2021/05/mainstream-media-and-politicians-calling-out-israeli-apartheid.html
