Please, America, show some shame over the war in Gaza
- If China has been committing genocide in Xinjiang, then what do we call what Israel and the United States are doing to the people of Palestine?
There is hypocrisy, and then there is just being ludicrous. Some rights activists have taken to calling the United States president “Genocide Joe”. So now may not be the best time for his top diplomat, Antony Blinken, to use the G-word against China over the Uygurs.
In the latest State Department report, it is claimed that “in Xinjiang, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to carry out genocide, crimes against humanity, forced labour, and other human rights violations against predominantly Muslim Uygurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups”.
Deradicalisation and reeducation against Muslim extremism and terrorism? That period of “repression”, if you would like to call it that, has essentially ended, even according to a highly critical UN human rights report against Beijing.
But what about economic development, integration and assimilation for the Uygurs? Well, that must be some sort of genocide. When you can’t prove actual genocide, as in physical extermination, Western propagandists fall back on “cultural genocide”, whatever that means.
But all that compared to what?
Washington is about to commit a giant foreign aid package worth US$95 billion, of which US$26 billion will go to Israel. That is on top of the many billions already handed to Israel since the Hamas attacks on October 7. The US has provided weapons, intelligence and special forces support to enable a scorched-earth siege of Gaza that is rendering the Palestinian territory uninhabitable, even when the war ends. Meanwhile, the death toll is quickly approaching 2 per cent of the targeted population
According to Bloomberg, the US has supplied Hellfire missiles for Apache attack helicopters, mortars and ammo, including 30mm cannon ammunition, bunker-buster munitions, night-vision devices, and deadly 500-pound and 2,000-pound bombs used on the world’s most densely populated strip. The Pentagon also has opened its weapons storage in Israel to the Israel Defence Forces.
What do you call all that?
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said: “Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings … There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide … has been met.”
The International Court of Justice said: “At least some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the [Genocide] Convention.”
Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food said: “There is no reason to intentionally block the passage of humanitarian aid or intentionally obliterate small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza – other than to deny people access to food.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of World Health Organization said: “The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership said that Gaza faces imminent famine, because so little food has been allowed in. Virtually all households are already skipping meals every day, and adults are reducing their meals so children can eat. Children are dying from the combined effects of malnutrition and disease, and lack of adequate water and sanitation. The future of an entire generation is in serious peril.”
The Centre for Constitutional Rights, New York said: “Prominent human rights advocates and scholars have argued that the killings of Palestinians and their forceful expulsion from mandate Palestine in 1948, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and the violence and discrimination directed at Palestinians by the Israeli government have violated a number of human rights protections contained in international human rights law, genocide being among them.”
Yet, Washington continues to claim no genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity have been committed. Seriously? That has put a different gloss on genocides committed in modern times.
Please, Mr Blinken, show some shame.