ISRAELI soldiers at a military academy have exposed the essence of the cold-blooded and murderous nature of the recent Israeli army onslaught into the Gaza Strip when 1,434 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed and 5,450 others wounded.
Among the dead were 437 children, 110 women, 123 elderly men, 14 medics and four journalists.
The wounded include 1,890 children and 200 people in serious condition.
The essence of the criminal onslaught was that it was conducted under rules of engagement that allowed soldiers to slaughter unarmed Palestinian children, women and men, and conditioned the soldiers to regard Palestinian lives as being worthless, to be extinguished as the opportunity arose.
The above figures show that the fullest advantage was taken of these rules of engagement by the Israeli military and that the entire Israeli war cabinet and its military establishment should be put on trial at the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague.
The truth emerged when Gaza war veterans’ accounts of the killing of civilians, and allegations of the deep contempt for Palestinians pervading its ranks, were raised at a military academy during a discussion of the 22-day Israeli offensive.
The institution’s director said the soldiers pointed to an atmosphere within the military of ‘unbridled contempt for, and forcefulness against, the Palestinians. . .’
One of the soldiers, an infantry squad leader, recalled an incident in which he said an army sharpshooter killed a Palestinian mother and her two children who turned the wrong way after occupation troops ordered them out of their house. ‘The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go their right. One mother and her two children didn’t understand and went to the left . . . The sharpshooter saw (them) approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them.’
The squad leader said most of the men under his command felt ‘the lives of Palestinians . . . were something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers, so as far as they are concerned, they can justify it that way.’
Another soldier related a story about an old woman who was crossing a main route who was shot by the soldiers. ‘I don’t know whether she was suspicious, not suspicious, I don’t know her story . . . I do know that my officer sent people to the roof in order to take her out . . . It was cold-blooded murder.’
The above is the proof that Israel with its concept of the ‘Jewish’ state is racist through and through.
In fact, the treatment dished out to the Palestinians of Gaza is no different to the terrorist tactics that were used to establish the Zionist entity in 1948, and drive hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes into refugee camps in the Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
The Labour movement must now take action to support the masses of Palestine to achieve the establishment of a Palestinian state, without any settlements, and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The trade unions must insist that the UK stop arming Israel and must break the blockade of Gaza by sending shiploads of aid to the Palestinians.
All relations between the British army and the Israeli army must be broken off, and any Israeli minister or officer visiting the UK be arrested on war crimes charges.
The trade unions must impose a boycott of all Israeli goods and services, and promote it world wide through the international trade union movement. This boycott must continue until the independent Palestinian state is established.
