Today I came
across a sentencing in Israel. An IDF, (Israeli Defense Forces, even though
their actions constitute nothing about “defense” at all), soldier was sentenced
to 45 days in prison for the killing of two unarmed Palestinian women in 2009,
during Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead.”
This is a sickening mockery of
justice, and only shows that the Israelis view Palestinians as sub-human; that
their deaths aren’t really that tragic at all, and that their deaths aren't really human deaths. He got 45 days in prison
for deliberately killing two unarmed civilians!!! Imagine if it was the other
way around. Imagine if a Palestinian resistance fighter killed two unarmed
Israeli women. The whole world would be in an uproar about the “poor little
Israelis, always being bullied by their hateful and terrorist neighbors!” The
Israelis would undoubtedly try and kill that resistance fighter. But in this
case, since the perpetrator was Israeli, and the victims were Palestinian, he
gets a measly 45 days in prison.
Imagine if this happened to our
nation. Imagine if some Taliban terrorist made it to the U.S., and killed two
unarmed American women. The whole nation would be in an uproar about how “all
Muslims are terrorists, Islam supports this kind of heinous act,” or my personal favorite that I've read many times from extremist web posters: "WE SHOULD JUST NUKE AFGHANISTAN!!!!" etc etc, the
usual xenophobic, ignorant, bigoted BS.
This sentencing is against all
religious decrees, and against the majority of the Western countries’ laws.
Even in places like Great Britain and France, who do not have the death
penalty, they would still sentence this man to decades in prison, perhaps even
life.
You all already know my opinion on
what his sentence should be. He is a terrorist; he killed unarmed civilians on
purpose. Therefore, in accordance to U.S. and Islamic law, he should be put
to death.
The article furthers explains how
disgusting the actual trial went. He was originally charged with manslaughter,
and then got downgraded to illegal use of weapon. Then, the Israeli
military tried to cover up the murders, saying that they shot at one man, not
two women. But the evidence collected from Palestinian human rights groups and
other eyewitnesses overwhelmingly rejected that pathetic lie. The soldier said
that he shot at the women because he “felt threatened.” What a load of
bullshit. An IDF soldier, with an automatic rifle, and backed by tanks and
helicopters, is “threatened” by two women waving a white flag as they
flee for their lives? Give me a fucking break.
On top of all this, this Israeli
soldier is the only Israeli soldier to face “prosecution” for their terrorist
acts during Operation Cast Lead. There are still hundreds, perhaps thousands of
Israeli soldiers, commanders, and politicians that have gotten away with
terrorist acts and murder. According to the Palestinian Center for Human
Rights, Operation Cast Lead killed:
1417 Palestinians total, of which:
926 civilians, which includes 429
women and children,
255 police officers,
236 fighters.
Meanwhile, during the same time frame,
the Israelis suffered 13 causalities, of which 3 were civilians and 10 were
soldiers.
Just from the numbers you can tell
that Israel completely disregarded the safety of civilians. Their radical,
racist views that the Palestinians are sub-human convinced them that they don’t
deserve to enjoy the same basic human rights that Israelis have. The article
goes on to explain “Anonymous Israeli Accounts of Deliberate Civilian Murder”,
admitting that they carried out terrorist attacks against civilians. Sometimes
the soldiers just felt like doing it, other times their commanders and superior
officers ordered that they do it.
On the other hand, the majority of the
Israelis killed by Palestinian resistance fighters were soldiers. The numbers
show that even though the Palestinians had less sophisticated weaponry, they
still primarily aimed at Israeli soldiers. This completely refutes the standard
narrative of the U.S. mainstream media that the Israelis are the “good guys”
and that the Palestinians are “terrorists.”
In conclusion, this only further adds
to the extremely long list of reasons of why Israel is an illegitimate state,
and that the Palestinians have every right, under international, philosophical,
and religious law, to engage in armed resistance to protect themselves and
liberate their land from foreign occupation. They have every right to defend
themselves from terrorist attacks. All people, regardless of religion or race,
have the right to defend themselves from terrorist attacks. This perversion of
justice also adds to the extremely long list of reasons why the U.S. should
immediately drop all foreign aid to Israel, as well as cut off all economic
ties with the illegal, racist, apartheid state. As principled Americans we
should not stand for our tax dollars being funneled to support terrorist
attacks on unarmed civilians. That is against our American values, and we
should condemn it, no matter who is the perpetrator and no matter who the
victim is.
Furthermore, the U.N. should arrest
all Israeli commanders and politicians whose actions caused Palestinian
civilian deaths, and put them on trial for war crimes and crimes against
humanity. I know they will never do that, because the Zionists are too
powerful, but in an ideal world, where people acted on principle, and did not
make exceptions to those principles based on religion or race, that’s what the
U.N. would do.
Useful links:
Washington
D.C. based NGO that works to end the Israeli occupation: http://www.endtheoccupation.org/ and their other site: http://endaidtoisrael.org/section.php?id=379
International
Solidarity movement, (ISM): http://palsolidarity.org/
Donate
to help Palestinians in need: http://www.irusa.org/countries/palestine/ and
http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=86
