Israel's moral depravity
Published in The National, August 4th, 2024.
St Andrews University has just removed Stella Maris as rector because last November she called for a ceasefire in Gaza and said Israel had subjected Palestinians to “practices such as apartheid, siege (and) illegal occupation.” None of this should have been controversial and she made it clear that she was speaking as an individual, not for the university. St Andrews justified its decision saying her comments caused “anxiety and fear” for some Jewish students. This illustrates the extent to which the Israel lobby has penetrated not only US but UK universities, including those in Scotland. Removing Ms Maris makes a mockery of the notion that universities are bastions of academic freedom and free speech.
Anyone half conscious can see that Israel is committing a methodical and deliberate mass murder of an entire people. So can the ICJ, the world’s highest court, which ordered Israel to stop its genocide and withdraw from the territories it has illegally occupied since 1967. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel’s response has been to double down on its murderous rampage. Benjamin Netanyahu’s July 24th address to the US Congress exposed how completely Israel controls the US political elites. Congress not only gave a platform to the world’s leading war criminal but also 58 standing ovations during a 55-minute bellicose speech. This same Congress has appropriated $billions for weapons without which Israel would be unable carry out its genocide. The shameful spectacle revealed to whom Congress is really accountable - not to the American people but to the donor class that funds its campaigns.
The utter depravity of Netanyahu’s governing coalition was on full display last week when the Knesset debated the ‘Execution of Palestinian prisoners’ bill, that would allow male and female Palestinian detainees, who haven’t even been charged with a crime, to be raped and summarily executed with a shot to the head in order to free up bed space in Israeli jails. It’s been well documented that for months detained Palestinians have been subjected to multiple forms of torture including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, starvation, electric shocks and the release of threatening dogs. Many have died.
I wonder what ‘shared democratic values’ Israel’s enablers and funders, the US, UK and EU, have in common with Israel? Perhaps they include the right to rape and murder innocent detainees, introduce polio into Gaza, and slaughter and starve over 186,000 Palestinians? Or maybe they include the right to commit political assassinations on another nation’s territory in order to ignite a wider regional war?
When the US and its European puppets give carte blanche to a rogue, immoral state that tortures, assassinates and commits genocide, it’s no small wonder that the western world order is in freefall.
Scathing brilliant. One of your best ever! Well done
It is so incredibly disturbing that we are witnessing such horrors, such depravity, barbarism, cruelty and wanton destruction, by one set of people onto another, in 2024. If this does not stop, and is not stopped by the powerful nations under the influence of Netanyahu and his regime, it can only get worse and become a more catastrophic and widespread 'war'. A war of hate, dehumanisation and utter destruction of a country and the people who have a right to live there, in peace.
Is that what Israel really wants? Is that what the US and UK(Eng) really wants? Is that what Germany and France want? Really? What about the future of the planet, for our children and for grandchildren, it's already in great peril due to human made climate change.
I just don't get it but I am sick and tired of (mainly) old men and women, with their greed, their weapons of mass destruction, their cruelty and their loss of humanity, when in 2024, we have the chance to share the planet equally, help one another when catastrophes occur and set out a worldwide plan for mitigating the effects of climate change, at the very least. The US should be insisting on talks, on a permanent ceasefire and rebuilding of Gaza starting now and an exchange of hostages and all Palestinian hostages to be released and housed. I know that is the last thing on Israel's agenda, and it makes you wonder exactly why the US/UK(Eng) and other powerful rich countries are so complicit, have they been threatened with MAD?
Who knows, but it makes you wonder who else they'd stand by and watch and even enable such cruelty and barbarism, to be unleashed upon. Humans have lost the plot, and it's terrifying and depressing.
I used to be an artist, can't stand the art scene one of the reasons I no longer make art, but i was thinking what would I draw if I did take it up again. Kathe Kollwitz is one of my most revered artists of the 20th century, she lost a son and a grandson on both 'world wars', and she'd be horrified I am sure at what is going on now.
Also, I was thinking recently, why did my parents and grandparents suffer such dire poverty and lack of a decent life during WW2 when it was all for nothing...why did our grandparents have to give their lives, all for nothing. Many questions, and politicians need to take a long hard look in the mirror.