The International Court of Justice ruling that there is sufficient evidence to order Israel to halt the genocidal acts was important even though the ruling was weak basically saying Israel may continue its war on Palestine, but without killing a lot of Palestinians. What was the Zionist regime’s (and the Western governments) response to the ruling. Rejection and intensification of the genocide and also trying to liquidate a UN agency that takes care of 5 million Palestinian refugees and whose constricted help to Gaza which will is already diminishing will mean acceleration of genocide [3]. As Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur to the Palestinian Occupied Territories stated “Western governments have suspended #UNRWA funds due to serious ALLEGATIONS against 12 staff. Same governments have not suspended ties with the state whose army has killed 26k ppl in Gaza in 3.5m,though ICJ said it may plausibly constitute GENOCIDE. Double standards? Yes, big time.”

The genocide in Gaza is supported by many governments including Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan [4]. Palestinians uncovered a mass grave in the yard of a hospital that was besieged by Israeli forces where 30 bodies were found buried of people blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs and executed by the occupation army. You can see atrocities documented at the website of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor [5]. But the endless genocidal attacks on the local people also carry an environmental cost [6].

The carnage is also in the West Bank, for example the was an illegal Israeli raiding of Jenin hospital dressed as doctors and nurses to engage in extrajudicial execution of three young men [7]. Imagine if this happened in any other hospital in the world! collaborators likely informed about them being in hospital and where is the so called Palestinian authority?)

The history of the colonial Zionist project in Palestine needs to be told and retold in the Western World because it is hidden intentionally [8]. Bottom line is, through Zionist terror and massacres, Palestine was and still is being transformed from a  thriving multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi religious and even multi-lingual society to become a “Jewish state of Israel”. Hence 8 million of us are refugees or displaced people and colonizers now “own” (stole) 92% of historic Palestine and those of us remaining are squeezed in 8% under an apartheid occupation regime.

We Palestinians teach life [9]. We resist the hate and death cult of colonial racist ideas like Zionism. Over 105 years of colonization and oppressions, we engaged in all forms of resistance to try and get our inalienable rights of return and self determination. Most of our resistance has been non-violent – we prefer to call it Popular Resistance [10].  We in the one Democratic State proposed our plan for a post colonial Palestine [11]. The Islamic resistance movement presented its post-war preferred scenario: election / self determination for the Palestinians people to counter the US/Israeli plans for post-war (of ethnic cleansing, continued slaughter and continued occupation and strangulation) [12]. This struggle for freedom and dignity against a ruthless enemy that tries to dehumanize and liquidate us (and the two go hand-in-hand). This struggle is now joined by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Non-Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews also joined this struggle in the thousands (e.g. see Jewish Voice for Peace). More than 500 staffers of Jewish groups, most of them progressive, appeal to Biden to press for ceasefire [13]. But even some Zionists are speaking out [14].

Palestinians speak out also regularly so listen to us. Just today (Wednesday) I was honored to see some of my friends speaking including Dr. Haidar Eid [15]. I have not heard his voice for months. Many of us Palestinians reflect on our duties and responsibilities in this genocidal epoch [16].  The highly respected group of Elders call for ceasefire and immediate implementation by Israel of ICJ ruling [17].

Demonstrations around the world are astounding. Half a million in London, hundred thousand in Washington DC and large numbers in over 200 cities world wide. Over 50 cities in the USA defied the Zionist hegemony of the federal government and the media and issued resolutions to ceasefire.  Most gratifying, over 11 million Yemeni citizens filled the streets and their government obeyed International law by trying to stop the genocide [18]. We shall overcome someday. The refugees will return and Palestine will be free but we have to get rid of collaborators, and collusionists and awaken more people.

Notes/references

[1] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-prominent-professor-al-aqsa-university-killed-israel

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/jan/30/how-war-destroyed-gazas-neighbourhoods-visual-investigation

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/what-does-it-mean-to-be-palestinian-now/]

____________________________________________

Mazin Qumsiyeh, associate professor of genetics and director of cytogenetic services at Yale University School of Medicine, is founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation and ex-president of the Middle East Genetics Association. He won the Raymond Jallow Activism Award from the national Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. He is co-founder and national treasurer of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and has written extensively about the Middle East. Qumsiyeh is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, author of Sharing the Land of Canaan and Popular Resistance in Palestine, a professor at Bethlehem University and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History in Bethlehem. http://palestinenature.org

Go to Original – popular-resistance.blogspot.com

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