An estimated 2,100 Gazans were murdered by Israel during its bloody full-scale military assault on the beleaguered Palestinian enclave in six weeks over the summer. The fact that not a single Israeli will be held to account for this atrocity on a largely unarmed populace will surprise few who have watched such bloody episodes reoccur with alarming regularity over the past decade. Palestinians lives matter little to the world community and no one will speak for those who perish.
But Israel too has more blood on its hands — perhaps not as directly as those who would shoot down unarmed women and children at the end of a gun sight on a screen from a modern aircraft — but certainly as morally reprehensible and as equally guilty.
Figures compiled by human rights agencies and those who monitor the migration of the desperate and the desolate, show that over the past three months, at least 1,000 Palestinians have been lost at sea as they fled oppression and aggression in the Gaza Strip.
Unscrupulous human smugglers based in Egypt make despicable dollars by promising better lives for Palestinians in Europe. The overseas journey is treacherous, fraught with dangers from overcrowded boats, inhumane condition, perilous seas, poorly maintained boats and crew who will do anything at any time to save their own skin — with scant regard for the heaving and teeming human cargo.
Those Palestinians who take to the seas to escape do so for one reason — Israel. Tel Aviv’s forces maintain a choke-hold on the enclave; Israeli border posts prevent Palestinians from seeking work anywhere; Israeli army kills and maims, destroys homes and schools, targets hospitals and medical facilities; turns water and power on and off at whim; and prevents any material from reaching Gaza by land or sea.
Under such circumstances of oppression, there is little hope. Any semblance of hope that does exist comes from dreams of a better life elsewhere — and the risks that follow. For all of these deaths, Israel is guilty too.
