LETTER: Israel’s oppression is the root of violence

Despite the devastation inflicted on the people of Afghanistan, Ukraine and numerous other countries, an unrepentant US President Joe Biden and his neocon cohorts have now declared their full support for Israel’s war on Palestinians.

Israel is not only an apartheid and colonial state, it is also a de facto member of both Nato and the EU. Israel’s functions include covert destabilisation of the Middle East, Africa and Latin America in pursuit of the Nato and neocon agenda to impose US military and financial hegemony throughout the world.

As former president Nelson Mandela noted: if the oppressor uses violence, the oppressed have the right under international law to resist and even to apply violence against the oppressor.

Palestine has been a country for centuries, Jesus Christ himself having been a Palestinian 2,000 years ago. Irrespective of whatever financial and military support the US provides, Palestine will eventually prevail over Israeli apartheid. The so-called two-state solution sham modelled after SA “grand apartheid” is a non-starter.

Even apartheid SA did not drop bombs on Soweto during the 1976 uprising.

The Jewish Voice for Peace in the US has issued a statement headlined “The Root of Violence is Oppression”, declaring: “The bloodshed of today and the past 75 years tracks back directly to US complicity in the oppression and horror caused by Israel’s military occupation. The unchecked military funding, diplomatic cover and billions of dollars of private money flowing from the US enables and empowers Israel’s apartheid regime.”

A resolution passed at the recent Anglican Church synod states: “People of all faiths in SA have both a deep understanding of what it is to live under oppression, as well as experience of how to confront and overcome unjust rule by peaceful means. If we stand by and keep quiet, we will be complicit in the continuing oppression of the Palestinians.” 

The Global South, of which SA is a leading voice, must insist at the UN and elsewhere on the disbandment of Nato and the closure of the 850 US military bases in Europe, Asia and Africa.

In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, plus Biden and his neocons should be brought to trial for genocide, apartheid as a crime against humanity, and war crimes, in terms of sections 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The ICC has until now grovelled under US pressure, as illustrated by its failure to hold the Israeli government responsible for the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Will the ICC also close its eyes to an Israeli “holocaust” of 2.3-million Gazans?

Terry Crawford-Browne
Via email

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