From now on, the US and its allies must never again open their mouths to lecture the world about human rights. The raging atrocities perpetrated by Israel against Palestinian civilians have unmasked their hypocrisy and double standards.
In retaliation to the attacks by Hamas on October 7 that left around 1 200 Israelis dead and about 220 people abducted and kept captive in Gaza, Israel has unleashed a brutal military operation in Gaza that borders on barbarism of the worst kind.
The Israelis have literally besieged the Gaza strip, cut off water, electricity, food, fuel, medication and everything else.
They are bombing the strip by artillery, planes and from the sea – flattening houses, schools, clinics, hospitals, and businesses.
It is classical carpet bombing. In the process, they are destroying roads, telecommunication infrastructure and everything that caters to the civilian
population. It is estimated that 1.7-million Palestinians in Gaza have been left homeless because of the Israeli bombardment.
All these dastardly deeds have been declared crimes by the relevant international statutes. Apparently, Israel is above international law and can commit as many horrendous crimes as it wishes.
Israel claims to be fighting Hamas but all we see are television images of women and children being bombed and killed by the thousands.
Before the cutting of communications within the strip by Israel a few days ago, well over 11 000 civilians were killed by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Of these, around 4 650 were children.
Our television screens show images of injured children being carried into hospitals by frantic men, or bodies of children wrapped in white sheets being lined up on the ground for mass burials.
Most distressing are images of premature babies, who should be in incubators, lined up on ordinary beds and fighting for their lives because Israel is denying hospitals in Gaza electricity.
In its bombardment of hospitals, Israel claims that Hamas is hiding there or has tunnels underneath hospitals. The biggest hospital in the north of Gaza, al Shifa, is now simply a huge dark place where doctors and nurses just do what they can to keep their patients alive.
Israel has just bombed and physically occupied the facility. Other hospitals in Gaza have closed their doors after being inoperable due to bombardment by the Israelis.
The British waged a war against the National Republican Army (NRA), without bombing everything in the Northern Ireland because the guerilla army was in the
communities.
Just over a year ago, the US and its European allies have been screaming at the top of their voices about the Russian war in Ukraine. They were rallying everybody in the United Nations against the war and threatening fire and brimstone against countries that did not support them.
In just over a year, around 10 000 Ukrainians have been killed while in just over five weeks, well over 11 320 Palestinians were killed by Israel.
Yet the Americans and their Western allies refuse to condemn Israel, call for a ceasefire or support for the Palestinian civilians.
Instead, the Americans have given the Israelis more weapons, diplomatic cover and stationed their formidable warships in the Mediterranean Sea to deter any country from coming to the aid of the Palestinians. They are urging the Israelis to massacre as many Palestinians as they can.
The Americans have recently sanctioned Uganda for enacting a law against homosexuality and Iran for their hijab law.
How does this compare with the killing of babies, women, children and genocide against a people?
According to the Americans and their allies, only Israelis have rights. Palestinians, who are not white and are mostly Muslims, deserve no rights.
We should never listen to their sermons on human rights.
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- Mangena is a former cabinet minister and ex-president of Azapo
