Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
18 May
UK GOV WORKS TO ISOLATE GAZA UNDER ISRAELI ATTACK
On this day in 2018, UK abstained on a vote at the UN Human Rights Council to send a commission of enquiry to Gaza. The UK attacked the resolution as ‘unbalanced’ and cynically called on Israel to “carry out a transparent enquiry” into the mass killings. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem called such internal Israeli military probes “part of the whitewashing toolkit” to pretend to deal with Israeli army crimes. The UK also abstained on the UNESCO vote to admit Palestine as a member of that body.
الحكومة البريطانية تعمل على عزل غزة سياسيا في ظل الهجوم الإسرائيلي عليها
18 مايو
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2018 ، امتنعت المملكة المتحدة عن التصويت في مجلس حقوق الإنسان التابع للأمم المتحدة لإرسال لجنة تحقيق إلى غزة.هاجمت المملكة المتحدة القرار ووصفته بأنه "غير متوازن" ودعت إسرائيل باستخفاف إلى "إجراء تحقيق شفاف" في عمليات القتل الجماعي. ووصفت منظمة بتسيلم الإسرائيلية لحقوق الإنسان مثل هذه التحقيقات العسكرية الإسرائيلية الداخلية بأنها "جزء من مجموعة أدوات التبييض" للتظاهر بانها تتعامل مع جرائم الجيش الإسرائيلي. امتنعت المملكة المتحدة أيضًا عن التصويت على اقتراح اليونسكو لقبول فلسطين كعضو في تلك الهيئه..
During a special session today, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted a resolution mandating the creation of an independent, international Commission of Inquiry to investigate all violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law in the occupied Palestinian territory, with a particular focus on recent events in Gaza.
The resolution passed with only two states opposing (the USA and Australia), 29 in favour, and 14 abstentions. The UK was one of those to abstain...while Belgium, Spain and Slovenia supported the resolution...
Instead, the UK called on Israel to “carry out what must be a transparent inquiry into the IDF’s conduct at the border [sic] fence and to demonstrate how this will achieve a sufficient level of independence.” They further urged that such an investigation should include international members, and that if wrongdoing found, those responsible should be held to account.
This position comes despite warnings earlier in the session by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein of a “deficit in accountability for alleged extrajudicial killings and other violations, as previously reported by the Secretary General and my Office, undermines confidence in Israeli justice.”
Israeli soldiers tell of indiscriminate killings by army and a culture of impunity
Assaf and his armoured unit had been ordered to enter the Gaza town of Dir al Balah following the firing of mortars into nearby Jewish settlements. His orders were, he told the Guardian, "'Every person you see on the street, kill him'. And we would just do it."
Killing Palestinians for training:
Another soldier, Moshe, told the Guardian he and his colleagues came under pressure to obey illegal shoot-to-kill orders. As part of his sergeant's training course, he and his fellow trainees were ordered to set up ambushes in Jenin in May 2003. He said there was "pressure to get kills".
Killing is an Israeli way of life
Army snipers coolly and professionally killed unarmed Palestinian demonstrators, shot and maimed many thousands more. Millions around the world are being shocked by this barbarism but few, even among those who support Palestinian freedom, appreciate the systematic manner in which the Israeli killing machine operates, and how the killers are granted impunity by the topmost echelons of the genocidal regime in Tel Aviv. Here are a few examples that could be multiplied by a thousand of how Israel brazenly denied its murders or tried to 'justify' them. From what we have learned in Gaza in recent weeks, we now know that Israeli snipers can kill without any qualms unarmed Palestinians who pose no danger to them.
4-minute video: how Britain launched the ongoing crime