These are the words of Mona Ahmad al-Shawa, the coordinator of the Women´s Rights Unit at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a mother and an inhabitant of the Gaza Strip.
As of today, Wednesday July 23rd, there are more than 600 Palestinians killed by the so-called “Protected Edge” Israeli offensive, out of which at least 443 were civilians. According to OCHA data, more than 3500 are injured and 117,000 are displaced and hosted in 80 UNRWA schools.
“As a mother, I don’t know what to tell my children when they ask me if we are in a safe place, there is no safe place in Gaza right now” explains Mona with a broken voice. Her concern is more than justified, over the last two days Israel has killed an average of one child per hour, according to OCHA.
In addition to this horrifying statistic and just as a reminder, the Gaza Strip, which has been under an illegal blockade imposed by Israel for over 7 years, is one of the most populated areas in the world, its 360 square kilometers hosts around 1.5 million of Palestinians, out of which 1.1 millions are refugees. There is literally no safe place to go in Gaza: hospitals are being targeted, UNRWA schools are overloaded…people are gathering together with their families at home, outside hospitals or even in the streets. Israel is targeting houses and residential areas looking for supposed Hamas militants. So far, Israel has destroyed 530 residential properties, including many multi-story buildings, causing civilian victims and displacing the survivors. Over the past couple of days, the Israeli Army has killed more than 120 civilians, almost erased 5 complete families, 36 human beings, most of them children.
“The most outrageous part is the silence of the international community. They know Israel is committing war crimes and they are doing nothing, it already happened during the Cast Lead operation, and it will happen now again, there is no justice for Palestinians. For what all these papers? For what all these reports? What happened with the Goldstone report? We feel the support all over the world from the people, the civil society, and this help us and give us strength to keep resisting, but the silence of the governments is killing us.”
The response given by the international community, mainly the EU and US to the massacre that Israel is committing in Gaza is shameful, even insulting. Yesterday the EU issued a statement strongly condemning the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Hamas to Israel, describing them as criminal and unjustifiable acts and reaffirming the right of Israel to self-defense. It seems they have forgotten that there is no war in here, no equal sides, there are not two armies fighting over, there is one occupying power, bombing and massacring an occupied people, which I insist, have been living under an illegal blockade for more than 7 years. And no, Israel has not the right of self-defense within International Law. Quoting Noura Erekat, from Jaddaliyya “A state cannot simultaneously exercise control over territory it occupies and militarily attack that territory on the claim that it is “foreign” and poses an exogenous national security threat”. The EU might need new legal advisers…
In the mean time, while the EU and the US keep reinforcing Israel, an Israeli member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), Ayelet Shaked, stated that “they are all our enemies and their blood should be on our hands. This also applies to the mothers of the dead terrorists” and another academic, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli scholar of Arabic literature and lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, declared that raping the wives and mothers of Palestinian combatants would deter attacks.
The UNSCR 1820 affirms that rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide and State-specific sanction should be considered by imposing “targeted and graduated” measures against warring factions who committed rape and other forms of violence against women and girls.
So, let me understand…Israeli academics and MP are openly calling for acts which could be considered as war crimes and the response of the UN, EU and US is to reinforce their support to Israel based on its alleged right to self-defense?
How do you think Mona will feel reading these comments? How do you pretend her to still trust the international community and their bias peace agreements and cease-fires? How?
This massacre has to stop. The international community must remove the blindfold from their eyes and start being coherent and consistent with human rights and international law. They have to stop playing around with their economic and political interests and fulfill their responsibility to protect under IHL. Stop the massacre, stop the occupation and the blockade. Silence is complicity.
To Mona, and to all the brave Palestinian women. Your commitment for human rights, equality and justice are remarkable and an example of dignity and humanity to all of us. Thank you for keeping teaching life to the rest of the world every day.
