Currently, the only thing happening in the world is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is hardly any other news being covered. Never mind that Israel continues its annihilation in Gaza and the West bank unabated.
Don’t misunderstand me, the West and its allies should aid Ukraine in their efforts to repel Russian imperialism. But the US should also stop using American tax dollars to fund Israeli terror in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Palestinians have every right to ask why Western leaders, led by Biden, are imposing crippling sanctions on Moscow and threatening more retaliatory action if it continues with its invasion of Ukraine, but don’t take similar action against Israeli colonialism.
These are the same leaders, remember, who turn a blind eye to Israel’s ongoing theft of Palestinian land, and its military offensives against the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Palestinians can only look on in despair and wonder what it will take for the West to stop, pause and consider their territorial rights and sovereignty with the same compassion shown to the people of Ukraine.
I am not envious of Ukrainian fellows getting all the support they need. But I find it hypocritical of European and its allies. It took five days for sanctions against Putin when he invaded Ukraine but imposing sanctions for 70 years of oppression of the Palestinians would not be ‘helpful’ in the case of Palestine. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
For more than 70 years, Israel has subjected Palestinians to systematic human rights abuses, severe discrimination and deadly military force.
A fourth generation of Palestinian children is being brought up in refugee camps, in chronic poverty, denied the right to return to their family homes. Over a million Palestinians suffer discrimination over access to public services, land and employment. Israel’s siege of Gaza has condemned its 1.9 million inhabitants to poverty and psychological violence.
Are the people of that occupied land not entitled to their own territorial integrity and sovereignty without the reality of daily armed incursions by the aggressively-colonial state of Israel, a country which has never declared where its borders lie because its founding Zionist ideology demands its constant expansion into neighbouring countries, not just the land of Palestine?
Until the Western World rolls out a level playing field when it comes to human rights, sovereignty and respect for borders, we can expect to witness more invasions and land grabs as powerful states continue to act with impunity.
How can they claim to champion democracy and human rights on behalf of Ukraine while simultaneously staying silent about the plight of Palestine?
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