The body count is 121 and rising. By yesterday morning, 19 of the victims were children. I haven’t seen the figure for today. The words terrorism, racism, fascism etc have been so mangled for manipulative purposes that they are now utterly useless. We are left with no more than instruments of international law to describe the atrocities systematically committed again and again and again and again … forgive my lack of imagination – against the same people!

International charters insistently and doggedly violated by Israel include (but are in no way limited to) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which I believe even Israel implicitly ratified by the very fact that it was a UN member when the Declaration was signed, the Genocide Convention, ratified by Israel on 9 March 1950, and the Geneva Conventions 1-4 ratified by Israel in 1951 (though it hasn’t bothered about Protocols 1 and 2 (“As of April 2013, the Protocols had been ratified by 167 countries, with the United States, Turkey, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, and Iraq being notable exceptions” [source Wikipedia])

In general, Israel does not seem to care much for international treaties. This is clear from the fact that Israel (and Sudan and the US) were, but no longer are, parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. They simply signed out. (Hark ye, you guys, what company you keep!)

I am trying to reign in my tongue which, left to its own devices, would have lambasted Israel’s authorities, whipped them till there was not a sliver left of their precious self-righteous, vindictive, bigot dignity. Oops! There went my tongue.

Mind you, although I am neither from the US or Israel, I feel almost as much shame as anger and pain because of what the rest of us – the West – are – practically speaking – condoning. I suspect many of you do too. We have allowed this to happen, to continue happening with absolute impunity for many decades. We are accessories to the acts. Do you understand what I am saying? Do you understand what being accessory to genocide means, morally, I mean? You might want to think about that.

And don’t tell me that we have no choice! No of course I’m not referring to armed intervention!

We could simply refuse to do business with Israel. Not a blade of grass should we sell to or buy from Israel. Not a single product, soft or hard, not a single service, should we purchase or sell. Never mind the cost to our own economies!

More:
Since we cannot prosecute them in the International Criminal Court, we should make it clear beyond any doubt what we think about genocidal, aparteid states. No Israeli passport should be allowed entry to the Schengen Area. Not one! Let them taste the medicine they have forced down Palestinian throats for decades: Let them feel what it’s like to be prisoners in their own country.

I am not saying that all Israelis are war criminals. Many of them are probably no more or no less war criminals than all of us who are passively accessory to the systematic and repeated impunity of the crimes committed. (But please note that since Israel is a so-called democratic state, the majority of its voters must have voted for its government.) Any Israeli who abhors Israel’s genocidal and apartheid policy should be welcome to apply for residence or citizenship in, for instance, my country. I shall welcome him/her.