Flaming Kites v. Suffocating Siege and Terror-Bombing

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Two million Gazans suffer horrifically under Israeli-imposed concentration camp conditions.

They constitute a high crime against humanity, unaddressed by the world community, failing to challenge what's going on, Israel left unaccountable for Nuremberg-level crimes against long-suffering Palestinians, Gazans most of all.

Wanting to live free from Israeli oppression, countless thousands of Gazans have been holding peaceful Great March of Return demonstrations near Israel's border since March 30.

They've been attacked by live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets and toxic tear gas, killing up to 130 civilians in cold blood, injuring over 14,000 others, many seriously, many others maimed for life - victims of Israeli viciousness.

Unknown numbers of Gazan youths launched flaming kites cross-border on their own volition, directed by no one, causing a number of easily controlled fires - symbolic acts of justifiable resistance against a ruthless occupier.

There's nothing comparable between their actions v. the merciless might of one of the world's strongest militaries, nuclear armed and dangerous, armed with other state-of-the-art-weapons, unleashed against defenseless Palestinians, armed with the redoubtable will to resist Israeli state terror alone.

It's undeclared war against an entire population reflects unlawful actions of a ruthless occupier, getting away with mass murder and much more because nothing is done to hold its regimes accountable for high crimes too egregious to ignore.

Israel flagrantly breaches fundamental international law principles with impunity, the way it's always been since creation of the Jewish state by unlawfully seizing control over historic Palestine - 78% in 1948, the rest in June 1967, including Jerusalem, a UN-designated international city.

Nonviolent resistance against tyranny is a universal right, a fundamental self-defense right, recognized by America's Declaration of Independence, the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the 1976 Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples adopted by an international conference of jurists, academics and politicians.

These rights are upheld by the US Constitution and judicially at the highest level.

In Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham (1969), America's Supreme Court upheld the rights of free expression and public assembly, calling restrictions on these rights unconstitutional.

America's First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The UN Charter obligates member states to respect "human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religions."

Israeli violence against Palestinians throughout the Territories constitutes flagrant violations of fundamental human rights.

State terror on peacefully demonstrating Gazans is a glaring example of Israeli lawlessness. So is waging preemptive wars on the Strip at its discretion, along with cross-border incursions and terror-bombing selected targets without just cause.

Overnight Sunday was the latest example. On the phony pretexts of flaming kites and a few rockets launched by unknown parties, causing no damage, harming no one, Israel terror-bombed nine Gazan targets - naked aggression like all its attacks.

As long as the world community fails to hold Israeli regimes accountable, their high crimes will continue unabated.

Failing to act responsibly shows world leaders don't give a hoot about fundamental Palestinian rights and welfare, abandoning them for other interests pursued.

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