WFCOM Statement on the Palestine Situation

 

The media would have you believe the outbreak of current hostilities came out of the blue, a complete surprise and nothing had happened before it. The reality is very different. The root cause for the current and all previous hostilities ultimately rests with a brutal oppressor that has subjected the Palestinians to daily bouts of tyranny, increasing by the day and week during a brutal and savage 75-year old occupation and many years of brutal siege.

 

A genocide is unfolding in real time by a state that has been an illegal occupier for decades with the public hopelessly watching on, and many leaders shamefully complicit in this ongoing crime against humanity. With over two million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip, around half of them children, this situation becomes even more dire by the second.

 

The indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas includes schools, hospitals, mosques and churches – where nothing is spared – to the use of white phosphorus bombs, all show a flagrant disregard for international law and humanity.

 

Every war unleashed by the occupying oppressor over the decades was meant to have ended the threat to the oppressor. However, innocent civilians, including tens of thousands ofyoung children and babies, made up the majority of those murdered without mercy. Yet the ‘threat’ never goes away and worse follows. What will it take the world, that actively funds and supports these atrocities, to realise the root cause is the brutal and catastrophic occupation. This must end unequivacally and immediately.

 

Our politicians must condemn the actions of the oppressor until it abides by international law. It is ironic as well as tragic that we the public are demanding for International law to be followed but our lawmakers are siding with the Occupier who continues to break it.

 

We have to voice our opposition to the continued loss of innocent lives on all sides and in particular demand a halt to the ethnic cleansing by this brutal oppressor, as described by the UN.

With the backdrop of a 16-year savage blockade, aided and abetted by the superpowers, as of Monday 9th October 2023, the occupier cut off all water, electricity, food and fuel to the Gaza Strip, with

the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stating: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.’

 

This is the first time in human history a state announced to the World it was going to commit a war crime. It was equally shocking to hear the leaders of this country and other western nations give their unequivocal support knowing this is a war crime and which could result in a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable proportions affecting innocent civilians.

 

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, described this very act as a ‘Crime against Humanity’ and a ‘Act of Terror’ exactly one year ago in reference to Russia. The hypocrisy is culpable.

 

Legal experts have asserted that the order is that of ‘a massive war crime’ – ICC 8(2)(b)(xxv) – and very likely a crime against humanity – ICC 7(1)(b), 7(2)(b) [extermination] / 7(1)(k) [inhumane acts]. Furthermore, that the presence of combatants within a civilian population does not affect its civilian character – AP 1 50(3) – and that the ICC has jurisdiction.

It is imperative that we act swiftly to save innocent civilians although many have already sadly perished.

 

 

History will record those who moved to save innocent lives and those who paved the way to genocide.