By Douglas Johnson.

Genocide is underway in Gaza, and the situation could not be darker.  In addition to the deliberate killing of 30,000 civilians, the forced displacement of 80% of Gazans from their homes, the destruction of 500 mosques and churches, 200 cultural sites, 300 schools, and 360,000 homes, Israel is now using hunger as a weapon of war through a near-total food embargo.  When food trucks are allowed to enter, IDF soldiers gleefully shoot the starving Gazan civilians running desperately towards them.  By the start of Ramadan, Israel plans their final assault on Rafah, at which time the Rafah border gate will open for the starving and traumatized Gazans to flow into Egypt’s newly constructed refugee compound in the Sanai Desert.  The conveyor belt for ethnic cleansing will then be fully operational.

This is a US sponsored genocide.  Ben Gurion, early in his political career, marveled at the effectiveness of the US’s handling of its native population, and Israel has closely followed the US’ colonial-settler script.  Protected by regional US military bases, provided with the highest-grade US military armament, and shielded from criticism through tight controls of the mainstream narrative, Israel has waged a protracted strangulation of Palestine.  To white colonizers, Arabs—like native Americans—are “human animals” of no intrinsic value.  They are superfluous and disposable.  And now they must be cleansed.  There is just one problem:  2024 is not 1834.  There are laws against genocide today, and it is no longer tolerated by the world population watching it live on social media, and especially by Palestinians who are valiantly fighting back. There does appear to be hope.

In fact, oppressed people everywhere are banding together.  Countries at the receiving end of US military and economic domination, such as Russia, China, Iran, and others, have opted out of the US monetary system through the BRICS alliance which frees them from the US dollar and economic subjugation.  The US military, funded by the weakening dollar, is beginning to wane, which spells trouble for Israel.  Another example of unity is South Africa, once an apartheid racist state, but now a model of world justice and the only country to stand up for Gaza at the International Court of Justice.  Their case at the ICJ was passionate and awe-inspiring. 

Additionally, the Houthi rebels of Yemen, who were the earliest targets of US Reaper drones, the 9-year Saudi bombardment, and who are among the poorest people on the planet, are standing up for Gazans and effectively blockading cargo ships in the Red Sea from reaching Israel.  Their story is an extreme version of “David and Goliath.”  Recent images of the Houthi rocket bringing down the US Reaper drone are iconic.  The world’s oppressed are rising up.

The Gazans also remain firmly united.  Despite the ongoing aerial bombardment of homes and residential buildings, neighbors come out in droves, risking their own lives to assist those injured or buried, often using their bare hands to dig through the rubble.  Moreover, taxi drivers double as ambulance workers by risking their lives to deliver the injured to hospitals or to rescue entire families and transport them – often for free – to safer areas in Gaza.  Likewise, while over 120 journalists have been murdered by the IDF since October, the remaining journalists continue unabated.  One example is Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh who lost his wife, two children and a grandson while he was on air.  Minutes after burying his family, he continued reporting. 

Finally, as most hospitals have been destroyed by Israel and over 300 health workers killed, some doctors, when ordered to evacuate and leave their patients, refuse to do so.  Dr. Hamman Alloh, for example, responded, “do you think I went to medical school…so I think only about my life and not my patients?”  He was killed shortly after this statement.  A female doctor, Ameera Al-Assouli, recently ran through a gauntlet of sniper fire to rescue an injured man across the street from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and then performed life-saving surgery on him.  These residents and workers of Gaza are heroes and role models for the world.

For the first time ever, as the US’ and Israel’s genocide is unmasked for the world to see, the propaganda of US and Israeli exceptionalism lay in tatters.  Reluctance to criticize Israel for fear of being labeled an “antisemite” is gone.  Western youth are now presented with accurate historical accounts of Zionism and true depictions of Israel’s violent colonial-settler project in Palestine, including the last 50 years of brutal occupation.  They also compare the daily courage of Palestinians with the abject cowardice of Israeli soldiers.  These lessons will never be forgotten, nor will the images of Israel’s savagery and carnage.  In this dark time of genocide in Gaza, the human spirit cannot be defeated.

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Article by Douglas Johnson. Photograph by Mohammed Zaanoun, Gaza under attack, Rafah, 28.12.2023.
https://www.activestills.org/image/53018/