With the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) acceptance of Palestine as a member, and its agreement to investigate possible Israeli war crimes during last summer’s brutal bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Murderer Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be having fits of rage. His puppet, the United States government, has also denounced the Court’s decisions, and Mr. Netanyahu has made the following bizarre statements:
* “It’s absurd for the ICC to go after Israel, which upholds the highest standards of international law. Our actions are subject to the constant and careful review of Israel’s world-renowned and utterly independent legal system.”
* “But this decision is even more preposterous given that Israel is legitimately defending itself against Palestinian terrorists who routinely commit multiple war crimes. They deliberately fire thousands of rockets at our civilians, while hiding behind Palestinian civilians whom they use a human shield.”
* “It is the democracy of Israel, a world leader in fighting terrorism, which is to be hauled to the dock in The Hague, while the terrorist war criminals of Hamas are the ones who are going to be pressing the charges.”
Perhaps we might look at each of these amazing statements, and see how many holes we can punch in them in a short essay. Doing so is not particularly challenging.
Israel ‘upholds the highest standards of international law’. Well now, isn’t that interesting? International law forbids the movement of the occupying nation’s citizens into the occupied nation. Israel has moved over 500,000 Israelis onto Palestinian land, and Mr. Netanyahu has stated that not one of them will ever leave.
During last summer’s brutal attack on Gaza, press vehicles, schools, hospitals, mosques and private residences were all targeted; each is forbidden by international law.
Further: “Our actions are subject to the constant and careful review of Israel’s world-renowned and utterly independent legal system.” The fox, when protesting the farmer’s actions against it after it raided the henhouse, might have said the same thing. We often read, after some abomination committed by Israel, that Israel is ‘investigating’. However, we very seldom read about the outcome of such investigations, and when we do, it is to say that the perpetrator has been exonerated.
“Israel is legitimately defending itself against Palestinian terrorists who routinely commit multiple war crimes.” One worries about sounding like a broken record, when one points out again that there is no legitimate ‘defense’ by an occupier against the occupied. There is only greater enforcement of the occupation. An occupied nation, by international law, has the right to resist the occupation.
If Palestinians have, in fact, committed war crimes, Israel can file charges at the ICC (of course, that would mean actually joining the ICC). Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has stated that he will cooperate fully with any such investigation. Mr. Netanyahu, on the other bloody hand, has said he will not cooperate at all.
In this astounding statement, Mr. Netanyahu rolls out the old canard of Palestinian resistance fighters “hiding behind Palestinian civilians whom they use a human shield”. There is no evidence to support this claim, although there is ample evidence, including on video, of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) terrorists using Palestinian children as human shields. What was that that Mr. Netanyahu said above, about upholding ‘the highest standards of international law’?
Lastly, Mr. Netanyahu refers to ‘the democracy of Israel’. Well, this is a most unusual democracy, where all Israelis are afforded equal rights, but Palestinians and people of African descent are not. This sounds more to this writer like apartheid.
He further calls Israel ‘a world leader in fighting terrorism.’ Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are subjected daily to night raids, during which their homes can be ransacked, their possessions stolen and anyone of any age, including children, can be arrested without charge. Israel also bulldozes homes, sprays extremely offensive liquids on school, and routinely prevents people in desperate need of medical care from receiving it. If this isn’t terrorism, what is?
People often take great umbrage when the name of Hitler is ever associated with the actions of modern day Israel. However, this writer will risk the wrath of the ignorant and uninformed, and point out a parallel. In Mein Kempf, Hitler wrote about ‘the big lie’. “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.”
It seems that Mr. Netanyahu, in his desperation to halt the slow march of justice for Palestine, has resorted to ‘the big lie’. As shown above, the statements he made regarding the ICC’s decision to investigate possible war crimes Israel committed are simply lies, falsehoods that he hopes the world will believe; in fact, he needs to world to believe them, so that Israel can continue its gradual genocide of Palestine.
The U.S., true to form, endorsed this same view. Like Mr. Netanyahu, the U.S. sang the old song of ‘negotiations’ as required for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The United Nations recognizes Palestine’s borders as those that existed prior to 1967. There is nothing to negotiate; if Israel, as claimed by the esteemed Mr. Netanyahu, does in fact uphold ‘the highest standards of international law’, why does it choose to ignore this one? Why does it not retreat to those internationally-recognized borders?
The reason is simple; Israel, an apartheid state, has no interest in negotiating anything with the Palestinians; it simply wants to absorb all Palestinian land, destroy its culture and kill its people. Increasingly around the world the basic human right of self-determination is being recognized as one that the Palestinians have long been deprived of, and have long deserved. Pretty lies spoken with a straight face don’t hide the facts, and may slow the path of progress, but cannot stop it. The world, it seems, is finally losing patience with Israel.
Robert Fantina’s latest book is Empire, Racism and Genocide: a History of US Foreign Policy (Red Pill Press).