Two wrongs don’t make a right, in Gaza

Good thoughts from our friend, Norman Sigurdson

Like a lot of people I’m having a hard time processing the violence and blind hatred on display by both the Hamas leadership and the government of Israel. I’m still stunned by the brutality of Hamas’s attack on Israel last Saturday. It was, in every ethical sense, repugnant and indefensible although it can’t be described as “unprovoked.”

At the same time, the Israeli government’s brutal and disproportionate military response was expected but I was still horrified by its bloodthirsty ferocity. Both Hamas and the authoritarian Israeli government are targeting civilians under a sick doctrine of “collective punishment,” making civilians pay with blood for the acts of their leaders.

Hamas’s intent in their attack was to shatter Israeli civilians’ false sense of security and to remind the world of the plight of the Palestinians under the Nakba, 75 years of Israeli oppression, ethnic cleansing, and disregard for human human rights or international law.

Gaza is often described as “the world’s largest open air prison.” It is only 350 sq. kilometres and its population of 2.2 million people makes it the third most densely populated place in the world. Gazans are stateless and unable to leave the territory.

So, Israel’s reprisals against Palestinians in Gaza this week have left me saddened and horrified. Gazans’ lives have gone from being intolerable to deadly.

The Israel state’s indiscriminate bombing of civilians and its decision to cut off water, electricity, fuel, and food are both clearly war crimes which no western government dares acknowledge.

Two wrongs don’t make a right, as we were taught as kids, and two war crimes don’t make a peace.