Born on State Highway 1

Having been on the receiving end of accusations of racism for my criticism of Israel’s appalling treatment of its indigenous people, and being acquainted with many people who make no distinction between Jewish people and the actions of the Israeli state, I’m always very glad to be able to point out that not all Jewish people support Israel’s actions. Further, there are non-Jewish Israelis (just as there are Christian and Jewish Palestinians). And, finally, not all Israelis support their government’s actions.

Of course, the majority of Israelis do support their government’s treatment of the Palestinians, to varying degrees within a spectrum that most in the international community finds abhorrent. I’m not qualified to say why, but I suspect it’s a combination of compulsory military service and parental conditioning. It’s true that most Israelis support their government’s actions, just as it’s true that most Israeli chicks are intensely gorgeous.

Anyway, last weekend one Israeli peace group, Gush Shalom, marched against the occupation. They took photos. You can see them by clicking on the word: shalom.

It’s important to occasionally rail off some statistics to put things in perspective. For example, how many children would you say were killed in the Israel-Palestine conflict last year? If you guessed 60, you’re hella right. 60 kids. That’s pretty fucked.

Here are a few things to remember. When the news (and that includes mainstream New Zealand media) talks about Hamas “taking control of Gaza”, they were actually democratically elected by the Palestinian people. They are the democratically elected government. That’s important to remember. Also, “Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas” refers to “unelected Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas”.

Here’s another interesting point. What’s going on in Gaza at the moment is FUCKED. For those who don’t know, essential supplies have been blocked from getting into Gaza, including food and fuel. The fuel is used for generators. The generators are used for the hospitals. The hospitals are used for keeping people alive. This is collective punishment. Blatant collective punishment.

So, punishment implies a crime. What is the crime for which 1.5 million people are being punished? Rockets being fired at Sderot, an Israeli town. You can read the LA Times article here , about how hard life is in Sderot:

They take quick showers, afraid to miss an alert, no longer sleep in upstairs bedrooms and avoid public places at what are considered peak Qassam times. And when the alert sounds, people drop everything, including their unpaid groceries in the aisles, costing Daniel Dahan more than $100 a day, he said. He owns Super Dahan, the grocery his father started. They run to one of the square concrete shelters, known as betonadas, after the word for cement, that increasingly dot the town. Then they pull out their phones, to check on their children.

And let’s face it, that’s pretty terrible. Living with that kind of fear must suck. Dropping your groceries, phoning your kids… Hell, it’s going to cost US$25,000 per house to add safe rooms to protect people. Who can afford that?

Well, presumably the people of Sderot can afford that. And apparently they have groceries and phones. Yes, it’s a tough life there. And their kids! I mean, as I said above, 60 children died in the conflict last year. Some of them must have come from Sderot, right?

No?

Well, some of them must have come from Israel, right?

Yes! Yes, one child out of 60 who died last year from violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict was Israeli. His name was Mahmoud Ibrahim Mahmoud al-Krenawi, 11, of Rahat, near Beersheba. He was a Bedouin with Israeli citizenship, and he was shot by the Israeli Defence Force, in his head and pelvis, while picking figs.

Oh, wait. Even the Israeli kid wasn’t killed by Palestinians. He was killed by the Israeli Defence Force too. This is very disconcerting. So, basically, hospitals are being shut down, 1.5 million people have had their vital supplies cut off, who are living in shit anyway, because they democratically elected the wrong people and include some minority who fire unguided rockets into a town 1km away, disrupting grocery shopping and killing one Israeli child every two years, on average, since they began being fired in 2001.

There’s another statistic for you. On average, since 2001, Qassam rockets fired into Sderot have killed 1 child every two years. Four children since 2001. THREE KIDS HAVE BEEN KILLED IN GAZA BY THE IDF IN THE LAST MONTH! NO CHILDREN HAVE BEEN KILLED IN SDEROT IN THE LAST YEAR! This is not a proportionate response.

It’s just fucked. And the media’s attempts to “show both sides” and “be objective” just results in a ridiculous presentation of the affair as being roughly equal, with equal accountability and equal power to resolve the situation.

Anyway, according to Tom Feeley, here is how to donate food directly to Palestinian kids. No political, religious or militant groups involved.

PS. Statistics from Remember These Children.

PPS. Yes, life in Sderot is fucked, and it shouldn’t be. Missile attacks on civilians are by definition terrorism. It’s just fucking paradise compared to what the IDF do to Gazans.