the executive director of Amnesty International Israel
Yonatan Gher, executive director of Amnesty International Israel, whose brother is an IDF soldier currently fighting in Gaza, wrote an article arguing essentially that Israelis an numb to Palestinian deaths and suffering.
"Israel has one standard for the rest of the world, and another for itself," he writes. "Actions that amount to clear violations of human rights when another country commits them are coined 'political' when they happen here. And if you criticise those actions, you'll be accused of 'ignoring the context,' or 'being anti-Semitic.'"
Gher stated these claims as fact, without presenting any backing. He does not explain what he sees as "clear violations of human rights."
He then goes on to demonstrate that nobody has a conscience, making it difficult for him (a self-styled conscientious objector) to relate to his young son how terribly unfair life is for the children of Gaza.
At night, he writes, my son "asks me whether there are sirens in Gaza too. I explain that kids in Gaza have none. They don't have an Iron Dome either. 'What protects kids there?' he asks."
Gher then suggests that the solution is "the upholding of human rights." In other words Israel is to blame, and Israel should be taken to task.
War is an ugly, horrible thing. Blaming the Jews for the high number of civilian deaths is the easy way to respond. But anyone in Israel's shoes would send in their war planes and heavy artillery (minus the text message and phone calls to warn civilians). I have heard endless complaints about how Israel has conducted the war, but nobody is proposing viable alternatives.
Hamas has made it perfectly clear that their singular objective is to drive the Jews into the sea. And they have also made it clear that they are willing to "martyr" the people of Gaza to achieve this objective.
I wish next time Yonatan Gher's son asks where Gazan children go when the bombs fall that his father has the intellectual integrity to tell him the truth: It would be fabulous if the children of Gaza could go underground to the astonishing number of tunnels built by Hamas, but the problem is Hamas earmarked those tunnels for military activity and left all of Gazans civilians up on deck, knowing exactly what would happen. Why doesn't Gaza have bomb shelters? Because Hamas doesn't want them. Civilian suffering is an inherent part of Hamas strategy.
Gher then offers his solution: "I truly hope that more people around the world take action, to call on all fighting parties to stop targeting civilians, and on their own countries to utilise the International Criminal Court and to impose arms embargoes to keep us safe."
A lovely sentiment. But had the international community imposed an effective arms embargo on Gaza, none of this would have had to happen. Nobody would be dead. But you don't see people rising up in arms to keep Israel safe, so Israel had to do the job, primarily by imposing a maritime blockade.
As for Gher's suggestion that Israel be indicted by the ICC, he would do well to listen to the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, who himself said Gaza has no legitimate claim it could bring to the ICC.
Israel
has one standard for the rest of the world, and another for itself.
Actions that amount to clear violations of human rights when another
country commits them are coined "political" when they happen here. And
if you criticise those actions, you'll be accused of "ignoring the
context", or "being anti-Semitic".
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