Israel caging Gaza as Coronavirus threatens

The reckless US and UK cold war policy to support Al Qaeda against the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan led to blow back that still endangers us all. US sanctions on Iran, backed up by threats to anyone trading with that country, have weakened their health service, reduced their defences against Covid19, and contributed to a tragedy for the Iranian people, a tragedy seemingly welcomed in Washington: “US policymakers are asking whether deaths within the regime are widespread enough that they could alter decision-making.” This US-crafted disaster has created yet another danger to all of us from a pathogen that does not respect passport controls.

The USA is not alone in hoping Covid19 will weaken an 'enemy'  population. Israeli savagery towards the people of Gaza – including snipers competing openly to shatter the knees of unarmed youth who pose no danger to them - has greatly weakened that society's ability to resist the coronavirus, potentially contributing many deaths to the Zionist effort to reduce the number of Palestinians in Palestine.

Just as Trump and his team hope to benefit from the Coronavirus deaths in Iran, Israel also sees a benefit in Covid19 ravaging the trapped and weakened population of Gaza. The UK Government has not only allowed the Israeli regime to commit crimes against humanity, it sells sniper rifle parts and other arms to its ally to facilitate the murders and other crimes. The Israelis have learned they can behave in Gaza like Nazis, i.e. deliberately, on an industrial scale, maiming and murdering innocent civilians over many years, and that the British Government will maintain its support for the bestial army committing the crimes.

But Gaza is on the Mediterranean. Although appeals to basic morality receive short shrift from the UK and EU governments, self-interest could now spur many to demand the lifting of the siege of Gaza and for the people there to have access to the medical resources they need.

Exhausted by years of brutal and illegal siege where Israel controls every gate into and out of the area, and steals most of the aid destined for Palestinians, the Palestinian people of Gaza qualify as a vulnerable, high-risk group. Their suffering is not due to an absence of quality efforts by committed health care workers to treat them, for Gaza has a heroic group of such health professionals, but is a direct result of a human-engineered humanitarian crisis.

In the current situation, Coronavirus Is a death sentence for Palestinians caged in Gaza.

The Iranian government has temporarily released 70,000 prisoners in an effort to slow down transmission of Covid19, closing down a dangerous transmission hub for the virus. Israeli-occupied Gaza is the world's biggest prison and Israel uses the civilian population as a petri dish for testing surveillance and killing technology.

Many in the UK approach the breaking Coronavirus crisis with fear and trepidation. Hard experience has taught us the mini-Trump in Westminster cares nothing for our welfare and that the Tory Party always prioritises corporate profit over human needs. We have just emerged from a Brexit political clash that made Trumpian claims about building up Britain’s world-class National Health Service, which its predecessors ran down. The UK now has one of the lowest numbers of beds per 1,000 population in Europe, just over two per 1,000 – Germany has six per 1,000.

Backed up by corporate media, the Israeli Embassy and Tony Blair’s admirers in the Labour Party, this same government mounted a campaign of lies and vilification against a Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, for his criticism of Israel. There is massive distrust in this government – many voted for Johnson to get Brexit despite knowing he was serially dishonest. Tories voted for him because he was good at it.

Many in Britain are realising they will have to take action to save their own lives in the coming months, or at least the lives of their elderly or infirm loved ones, to avoid their being collateral damage in the Tory strategy to keep costs to the minimum while managing the pandemic.

While we fight for our own near and dear, we must demand that non-violent, low risk prisoners are released from British prisons and the brutal siege of the Palestinians in the Gaza Concentration Zone is lifted to allow them to defend themselves against the Coronavirus, the latest addition to the broad coalition of their tormentors.

Mick Napier
West Calder 15 March 2020
mick@scottishpsc.org.uk