Impunity, Indifference and Death

The vomit of war increases and continues. For now, no one will stop it. Asymmetry and disproportionality. Brutality. Tanks with no soul or pity. Murderous Hamas missiles. And Gaza is a hostage of it all, of all evil. Each death encourages more extremism, more hatred, more revenge. Does Israel have the right to defend itself? Without a doubt. It is its duty as a state. The safety of its citizens is an obligation. But the impunity, and the abuse of civilians through the disproportionate use of artillery, drones and combat aircraft, their deathly cargo unleashed among innocents, is an unacceptable boundary. But who cares about that boundary in Europe, in the U.S., in the Arab countries themselves? No one. Absolute indifference. Real cynicism and silence; it does not matter how strongly a ceasefire is called for to end this full-fledged war with reversed roles between Goliaths and Davids. How many more deaths are needed in Gaza? Palestinian deaths, Israeli deaths. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed already, almost 300 of them children, victims of bombings and shootings. At least two-thirds have been civilians. Without guilt, without sin. On the Israeli side the numbers have already exceeded 60 dead. The vast majority, soldiers.

And the cynicism continues. The imbalance of power, the lack of legality, the complete absence of morality, the impunity, and the silence of a hypocritical international community. Life is disdained, every international and humanitarian law violated. And it seems not to matter. Hundreds and hundreds of houses completely destroyed. Districts, parks, schools, mosques, cemeteries, the power plant, water pipes. What could possibly justify such destruction and so much damage? When all this madness of blood and death, of destruction and annihilation of all hope stops; when we realize the abyss of poverty and misery experienced by the Gazans, who will think, who will help, who will care about them? No one. Shame. lies and manipulations. Hamas bears a lot of blame in what is happening. But the blame is not exclusive. Action and reaction, one side and the other. Necessary spirals. Extremism on both sides. No one thinks. Meanwhile, the arms industry, especially the American one, extends invoices, deliveries and benefits. Obama, the president of peace — only to a shameful Swedish Academy — watches in silence. He simply watches.

The Arab world is reorganizing itself. Hamas’ former allies are no more. Qatar and Ankara crave to take the center stage. Syria and Iran, despite religious and ideological differences, do not offer support like they used to. Egypt has closed its doors.

Gaza has been blocked for years, by land, sea and air. We must not forget. With Egypt’s border sealed, it is an open-air prison with close to two million impoverished Palestinians. Not all of them are Hamas. Before Hamas existed — powered at the time by some Israeli cabinet to weaken Fatah — circumstances were no better for Palestinians.

The United Nations is an insignificant voice in a desert where protests and releases only have a small place. The war will continue; it will not stop until Netanyahu decides to end it. The destruction of Gaza will continue unabated. In passing, tens of tunnels will be destroyed, Hamas militants will die, and ramps and missile launchers, fortunately not very sophisticated, will be destroyed. But the U.N. resolutions and the Geneva Conventions will remain unfulfilled by Israel, and the American veto, cynical and petty, will serve to quiet other voices. And those who dare to criticize will be accused of anti-Semitism, of being liars, ignorant, and the enemies. We have seen it before many, perhaps too many, times. And the violence will return. It is the ellipsis of a recurring and necessary spiral for the detractors of peace. Israel has acknowledged that those who kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers were not Hamas. That does not matter anymore. It was the necessary spark. Interested causality. Two months before, Hamas and Fatah formed an artificial, but necessary, union for both organizations. The answer and the cause lie there. We should not forget or distort this fact.

Indifference and exhaustion has caused many, especially those who still have some kind of weight in the international arena, for one reason or another, to look away. What will Israel do after this tragedy? Will the blocking, oppression, denial of everything end? Will it improve the living conditions of Palestinians? Will it stop blocking and pressuring the world for Palestine to become a state? Will it allow economic reconstruction and improvement of the lives of Palestinians? It will do nothing. But this is the only way to avoid terrorism. And it would weaken the violent. The spiral of hatred continues. Mission accomplished for the radicals. Israeli widows and mothers mourn. Thousands of Palestinians weep and despair, condemned to an open-air prison. And here, as on the other side, there is no compassion. Hatred wins; impulsiveness, irrationality win.

Wake up, civil societies. Wake up and sever the hatred you have been inoculated with, and the injustice with which they feed your consciences. Not like this. Both of you condemn yourselves. You condemn the future of your children and your grandchildren. Enough of massacres, violence, madness, oppression, humiliation, usurpation. Enough of so many lies and manipulations, of so much military and political negligence. Enough of so much extremism of Hamas’ terrorists. With every death, more hatred, more vengeance is furthered. The facts and images speak for themselves. The brutality and disproportionality of the Israeli army speak for themselves. Silence. Some would prefer to lower the curtains. There is no pity, no compassion, on either side. Be careful, those who raise a Palestinian flag as a mouthpiece; being in the picture no longer sells.