Noone should pretend to be shocked by the extent of the crime being
committed in Gaza – which was carefully prepared and even announced!

All the Israeli politicians had made public statements about it,
competing to outbid each other. All of the United Nations officials had
sounded the alert about the situation in Gaza, which was already
unbearable even before the bombs started falling. Even the lorries which
were authorised to carry supplies across the border on the eve of the
attack appear to have been part of the preparations for the current
military offensive, in order to distract attention and give a false sign
of calm, by delivering certain materials necessary to manage a town
under fire – such as a small quantity of petrol so that some hospital
generators could function and so that a few ambulances could be driven.

If it is not genocide being carried out in Gaza, what can we call it?
Tzipi Livni, just one month ago while in Brussels, sought to justify the
siege of Gaza by the need to strangle Hamas - “unfortunately” as she
added. Just like Madeleine Albright who, when asked once by a
journalist if the aim of getting rid of Saddam Hussein was worth the
deaths of one million Iraqi children during the embargo, replied "yes,
unfortunately we think it was worth it". Both of them follow the same
credo expressed by Samuel Huntingdon: "dry up the sea where the fish
swim“. The sea being the people: the Vietnamese for the”Shock of
civilisations" author; the Iraqis for the former American secretary of
state; and the Palestinians for the Israeli foreign minister…. however,
the difference in Palestine is that this has lasted for 60 years and
this is not a case of colonialism wishing just to conquer and dominate a
people; it aims instead to wipe them out.

The crime in Gaza did not begin on that dark Saturday – it began when
the siege of Gaza was allowed to take place, when the hypocritical
fiction of a “peace process” was accepted by the Quartet, the Annapolis
conference and all the rest. Everyone knew perfectly well that it was
all a sham, while seeing certain Arab regimes maintaining official or
unofficial relations with Israel, supposedly to “encourage” it to follow
the path of peace, and even witnessing the European Union upgrading the
level of its cooperation with Israel.

But now is not the time for analyses or rhetoric. Witnessing the blood
being spilt in Gaza, the men and women of this world will either feel a
jolt of conscience or it will be too late: not only for Gaza and
Palestine but, especially, for they themselves. They will also have
become slaves. In the face of such a crime, we must protest, shout
aloud our indignation, condemn and boycott Israel. We must demand an
international protection force for Palestine. We must demand the
resignation of the Palestinian Authority, which has become a camouflage
for the occupation. And we must punish Israel by defining the war crime
committed and bringing the culprits before an international tribunal.