Over 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel
Soon israel
has vowed to keep humbling the islamist faction in gaza sending thousands of
israelis to shelters the pre-dawn salvo set off sirens as far as northern halal
which is 100 kilometers from gaza.
At
least 67 people have been killed in gaza since violence escalated and seven people
have been killed in Israel now the unrest has been driven by anger over the
looming evictions of palestinian families from the Jerusalem neighborhood of
sheikh jarrah now palestinian president mahmoud abbas has vowed to do
everything possible to defend palestinians and stop the aggressive occupation with
that the enriques netanyahu has declared a state of emergency in the mixed
jewish arab city of lord where a synagogue and other jewish property have been
tossed and an arab resident was shot dead nathaniel was void to stop violent clashes
between jewish and arab Israelis lynch now according to reports 1500 rockets have
been fired from gaza into Israeli cities since hostilities escalated between
hamas militants and Israel now we have with us a Palestinian legislative
council candidate and founding member of democratic national will be joining us
live she's joining us live from palestine thank you so much for your time how
do you assess the situation on ground and what can you tell us about the
broader implications of these clashes.
Well
the situation on the ground is simply tragic, you have two and a half million
palestinians in gaza who are under siege in occupation who have no shelters to
seek safety in who have been pummeled with a bombardment constant bombardment
from Israeli jet planes and so, far we've lost at least 16 children approximately
six women and one disabled man those were among the nearly 70 palestinians
killed in gaza alone and on the ground in the west bank the situation is not
any less tense israeli measures and brutalization continues in occupied jerusalem
as well as in other cities around the west bank nightly raids continue and continue
to escalate as do settler attacks on palestinian towns and villages and neighborhoods
in jerusalem and inside israel so all in all the totality of this of the
situation is a an alliance if you will an exchange of roles between Israeli settlers
who are right-wing and racist and march down the streets chanting death to
arabs and israeli occupying forces that use all the military power and might at
israel's disposal and it's a military superpower as we all know especially in
the region against the population that is basically defenseless and has nowhere
to go all right also now the UN security council
will hold another emergency meeting to discuss the escalating conflict what can
we expect from that well unfortunately the last time less than 24 hours ago the
security council met it was the united states that prevented the adoption of
even a statement on
the issue and several countries including ireland for example expressed their
frustration with this obstructive U.S role, the
united states has so far chosen and not to exercise its expected role of leadership
in the region and the only thing we've heard are expressions of solidarity and support
with Israel and no semblance of even recognition that palestinians do not only
have a right to protection and self-defense but they also have rights under
international law as an occupied population israel remains the occupying power it
is violating um all tenants of international law in the way it is employing
power and force against palestinians in gaza and
across the occupied west bank right and speaking of the role of the united states
what can you tell us about the role of the international community as a whole
we know that and as you just mentioned
that joe biden has thrown his support behind Israel so what do you make of the
extent of the impact of repeated international calls to come well regrettably
these calls unless they are coupled with measures of accountability unless
israel feels that it will be held accountable for these violations that it would
pay a financial or political price for continuing to violate palestinian rights
to violate international law to brutalize the Palestinian people then it has no
incentive really to stop what it's doing in fact it will continue to feel
encouraged to uh to continue acting with impunity so long as it receives all
this financial political uh uh support from the united states without any other actors stepping in we've heard from
elected officials even in the united states calling on the
congress and in the uk and even in in canada and i would assume as well some
representatives in in india saying that this situation is untenable
that countries have to step in and take individual measures like conditioning
their cooperation and agreements with Israel to its adherence of uh to
international law stopping military aid making sure that the markets in these countries
do not uh accept settlement
products products produced on stolen palestinian land in contravention of international
law in really in a commission of a war crime
under the rome statute so there are many measures that individual countries can
take india for example can play a very significant role a morally moral
leadership role in uh putting the brakes on this israeli intransigence and
impunity by making sure that its relations its considerable financial and military
cooperation with israel are conditioned upon respect for international law
otherwise, what there's no incentive to de-escalate there's no incentive to and the
occupation which is at the core really of
all these escalations we have to remember that the daily life of palestinians
is a life of violence even if you don't see it on tv it's a life of being
subjugated to a foreign military occupation that controls every aspect of your
life and uses force and brutality and racist laws to
maintain that occupation so there's nothing calm about returning to before this
escalation as for palestinians at the very least.
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