The US government needs to admit its responsibility for the crisis in Palestine.
It was very kind of Brenda from the US Consulate in Jerusalem to finally return my call at 7pm, long after work hours.
I had been trying since early morning to get an appointment for a group of concerned US citizens living in Palestine to meet with a policy officer. We came together through social media and word of mouth, because we are desperate to speak out about the unjustifiable slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza that is now under way.
We want to express our opposition to American complicity in the Israeli attacks that have taken over 100 Palestinian lives, with hundreds more injured. We want to demand a change of policy before the threatened Israeli ground invasion becomes a reality. But it turned out that it was difficult to reach anyone in the consulate, much less to get an appointment.
Brenda was clearly in a hurry, but she responded professionally and explained that the American Citizen Services section was busy trying to help US citizens stuck in Gaza to get out to safety. They had priorities, she explained. They couldn’t take time to hear our views. Besides, her office doesn’t do policy work. That would be the other office.
No, she didn’t know the name of the person responsible for policy at the other office. It’s that transitional time of year, when people finish their missions and new people replace them. She advised that we not bother the policy people either. There is a crisis now and everyone is busy.
How convenient! US representatives are “too busy with the crisis” to talk about US responsibility for creating the crisis. I explained my view: The US gives billions in military aid to Israel year after year; it provides unconditional political support, despite Israel’s belligerent settlement policies; and it has refused to hold Israel accountable for violations of international law in the 2008-09 attack on Gaza and the one in 2012, not to mention the current offensive. Isn’t the US government — and, by extension, US taxpayers — complicit in creating the emergency that has now placed over 1.5 million lives at grave risk in Gaza?
Sounding a bit frustrated, Brenda said she understood my point, but still advised that we cancel our visit to the US Consulate tomorrow, since no one would be available to hear our complaints.
There are protests here in Palestine, in Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, and in cities across the US and the world. People want the US to stop unconditional support for jingoistic Israeli actions. But our government is too busy to hear our complaints? How loud must we scream before the US government hears our demand for justice for Palestinians?
*[This article was originally published by Al Jazeera English, and has been reposted with authorization from the news broadcaster and author.]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.
The British media, and in particular the BBC almost ignored this protest completely.
And yet being there I realised how very big and how very passionate this march was.
I have finally totally lost faith in the BBC as an unbiased news organisation.
Please continue this important journalism.
I will be making a contribution.
Thank you,
Martin.
After decades of safety, relaxed and comfortable as we are today, those of us who grew up during the Blitz, relate immediately, with a certain intimacy, to the victims, particularly the children, who are engulfed and consumed every day by the horrors exploding upon them in the present conflicts in Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and Libya : – simply the starkest acceptance of murder and madness today that politicians seem unwilling to stop.
How many bags of oats, body parts or corpses is it going to take to tempt the The Four Horsemen to reign in? Who will stop these massacres?
It is impossible for the layman to discover the jockeys, those shady puppeteers who always ensure they remain incognito, but the facemen, their steeds, sired during the time of Blair and Bush are well known as Obama, Netanyahu, Haniyeh and Cameron. with the bits firmly clenched between their teeth, all these mounts on current form would be destined for the knacker’s yard of Humanity, were there a spirit called Justice in the universe.
The casino called the ballot box, might suggest a punt if you wish to make yourself heard, but please, oh please, no matter your political persuasion, don’t let them play the faux democracy card yet again, roll out the standard paragraph platitudes and then tell you that they have a mandate and it’s what we voted for (and get stuffed for another four years). I counsel you to not mistake my well earned scepticism as cynicism.
At grass roots level, I know that within the electorate, the ignored majority, are of the opinion that the blame for this failure to address the situation in a purposeful and humanitarian manner can be laid at the door of those, nationally and internationally who determinedly fog the issue and continue to pretend on the one hand to promote some Utopia of a multi-cultural society, with no regard to society’s inherent social differences, religions, history and geographical environment, while on the other hand, when it suits them, extol the virtues and independence of different cultures.
For example,why should, say, the Scots desire to break away be tolerated, indeed celebrated, and the Slavs or the Palestinians be bombed ? Or, why should Israel benefit from an American Patriot shield and not extend a no-fly zone over Gaza, compliments of a couple of American aircraft carriers off the coast. Possibly the fate of the USS Liberty in 1967 provides one explanation. Or how what were then termed rebels in Libya were able to call upon the RAF to bomb their country to democracy. A shining example for aggressors in today’s war zones – America and Britain today closed their embassies and advised their compatriots to leave asap.
I suggest that the concept of the geopolitical Nation State as engineered by professional career politicians is to blame and the solution to present aggression will only come about if it is turned on its head and emphasis is placed on the legitimacy of ethnic and cultural boundaries. The map of the world cries out to be redrawn.
With hindsight and nigh on 80 years at the University of Life, and coincidentally a soldier in BCFK during the Korean armistice, it is unsettling now to sense how Nations drifted into WWI and WW2 and how we are in grave danger of drifting into global war again.
Something needs to be done, urgently. The UN needs taking by the scruff of its neck. (The template used by the United Nations in 1950 when BCFK provided what was then the British Commonwealth’s contribution at the time needs dusting down, amending to include the participation of China, Russia and others this time and an international ‘police’ force therefrom sent to create and enforce buffer zones.)
Without immediate action, how long does anyone seriously believe that one side or the other in one of these conflicts will not use nuclear weapons? Without the full scale intervention of the major nations the world will become a cinder. Apocalypse awaits.
Diplomacy cannot be relied upon. We have no Diplomats ! Witness the intemperate language today of our Ambassador to the USA and the crude attempt to divert opprobrium on Putin in a different sphere entirely. We shall rattle the sabres and send an armoured column to Poland no less, with no mention that it was the West’s attempts to coerce Ukraine into joining Nato that started that particular merry-go-round. Yes, I know an innocent civilian airliner has since been shot down and I do fervently hope the guilty one’s will be punished. To round this off, there are doubts of course about the manner in which the present “democratic” government in Kiev was installed and the USA’s role then.
Anyhow, the indisputable fact is that children and innocent civilians continue to be maimed and die. Pictures will be harder to come by now as Israel obliterated Gaza’s news facilities last night, along with incinerating hundreds of people. Ironic, coming from a people whose forbears suffered Auschwitz and who gained the admiration of the world for their fortitude. I am sure that Israeli families feel the pain of all families either side of the divide today and my sympathies and those of my family must be with them too as it is with all the war zones families worldwide.
Any ceasefire will only last as long as the next one for sadly the seeds of bitterness have been so widely sown. The question is not who is to blame but what can be done ? At the very least the powers that be should disband the PR/media dept, stop the claptrap, abandon all thoughts of commercial sanctions, which will not work but will simply act as a provocation and apply all their energies into formulating a strike force for peace.
These thoughts bring to mind a certain inevitability of passage of time, expressed in the words,
“And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honour and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand. ~George Bernard Shaw, ”
We do not have the time to wait for the gods but have no wish to see the end of history, do we ?
——————————————————————————————————————————————————–