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To Biden, Palestinian genocide is already complete

To Biden, Palestinian genocide is already complete

Last updated on: January 16, 2024 at 8:22 pm by Kathryn Shihadah

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To Biden, Palestinian genocide is already complete 2024-01-16T20:22:58-05:00 Kathryn Shihadah

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This is very hard to write about. I can’t even believe it’s happening. I will try to express some of what I’m feeling, and I hope it comes out coherent. I hope it will help us see better the horror of what is happening right before our eyes.

This weekend marked 100 days since the start of Israel’s war against the captive the people of Gaza. Our president, Joe Biden, made a solemn statement to mark the horrific milestone. In it, he spoke of the fear and anguish that the roughly 100 Israeli hostages must be feeling, and the grief and suffering their families are going through. These are very real sentiments. He was right to acknowledge them.

Then, President Biden, turning to the subject of the suffering people of Gaza, said…absolutely nothing. Not a word.

Israel has killed over twenty-three thousand Gazans, and injured sixty thousand more – and America has no comment.

Many thousands more are buried beneath the rubble of the 359,000 destroyed and damaged homes. No comment.

Over ten thousand Gazan infants and children died a violent death in the last one hundred days.

On top of that, almost all of the population of Gaza has been displaced; most are living in shelters, tents, or outdoors in the winter weather.

My husband's aunt Zahiyyeh, trying to stay warm in Gaza winter weather with no heat

My husband’s aunt Zahiyyeh, trying to stay warm in Gaza winter weather with no heat

Israel has withheld electricity from Gazans almost from the beginning of this atrocity; water is scarce and not fit for human consumption.

Humanitarian aid trucks with food are allowed into Gaza at a trickle, thanks to Israeli restrictions, and Gaza faces imminent famine.

Medical supplies to treat the sixty thousand injuries, the 180 or so babies being born each day, the cancer and heart patients all over Gaza, are unavailable – to the point that children are enduring amputations without anesthesia. Let that sink in.

No comment. No comment. No comment.

It’s as if President Biden doesn’t consider the residents of Gaza to be human. They are not even worth mentioning in passing.

(Just this minute, we got word of three more deaths in our extended family in Gaza. We receive messages like this every few days. To our knowledge, between 65 and 75 of our relatives in Gaza have been killed.)

To be clear, the US has been providing military aid to Israel for many, many years – in violation of our own laws – including several bonus arms sales during this war, during which the Biden administration simply bypassed the procedures that were created to keep our government accountable to the people. Billions more in emergency aid is under consideration in Congress.

My fellow American, this “war” (namely, a military superpower against a trapped population and its small band of angry fighters) is underwritten by our tax dollars. While our veterans sleep on park benches, our health care system is in shambles, our roads and bridges are crumbling – we are spending a fortune to enable Israel to massacre innocent Palestinians.

Israeli warplanes bombed the bakery in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israeli warplanes bombed the bakery in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where our family always got bread.

Perhaps it’s no wonder that Biden pretends Gazans don’t exist – he has been actively part of the massacre, as his US ambassador to the UN has vetoed calls for a humanitarian pause and ceasefire, his Secretary of State has visited Israel five times and pushed those bonus arms sales through special channels.

Biden would probably rather forget about Gaza and all he has done to destroy its people. He is acting like the whole population is already extinct. Nothing he could say would make anything better, but his silence is despicable.

In fact, this issue will rightly define his legacy as a president: he will be remembered as Genocide Joe.

Just last week, Israel was brought before the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide. We will shortly see charges against the US and UK governments on the grounds that they are complicit in Israeli forces’ war crimes in Palestine.

Let that sink in. The United States will be brought before the highest court on the planet and charged with aiding and abetting genocide.

America should be deeply ashamed. I know I am.

Those of us who heard about the events in Gaza and did nothing, should be ashamed of our indifference. I know I am talking to some of you right now.

Those of us who made an effort to bring attention to this issue – but know we could have done more – should feel regret for not trying harder.

Those who have supported Israel without restraint through the past one hundred days (you know who you are) – what is to be said, but that you have the blood of Gazan children on your hands? Can you see now, in retrospect, that Israel is a genocidal, supremacist state? Can you acknowledge now that your theology is flawed, that this Israel is not the same as the one in the Old Testament?

It takes genuine maturity and humility to admit a mistake, and I honor you if you are willing to repent.

If you are not, well, this genocide is your genocide.

Gaza is not going away. If you’re not familiar with the topic, there’s a list of informative articles below.

I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter. I write about the Palestine-Israel issue regularly, and other issues relevant to progressives or those considering becoming progressive. If you would like to comment on this post, please pop over to my Facebook page. All of my posts are there and open to constructive comment. I welcome your thoughts.

Posts about our Gazan family:

Further reading on the Palestine-Israel issue:

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About Kathryn Shihadah

I was raised as a conservative Christian, and was perfectly content to stay that way – until the day my stable, predictable world was rocked. A curtain was pulled back on conservative Christianity, and instead of ignoring the ugliness I saw, I confronted it. I began to ask questions I never thought I’d ask, and found answers I’d never expected. Old things began to fall away, and – behold! – the new me has come. What a gift to be a new, still-evolving creation. I found out that it’s better to look at the world through Progressive Lenses, with Grace-Colored Glasses. You can read more about the author here.

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January 15, 2024

The truth about Gaza: "I swear, we don’t mind death"