The prime Minister of Israel is visiting Australia. And our government and media are turning a conveniently blind eye to his horrendous war crimes, writes Michael Brull.
Remember when Donald Trump was running for President, and he said that he could shoot someone in the middle of New York without losing any voters? That’s basically the perfect analogy for the red carpet being rolled out to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this week.
Netanyahu is an overtly racist brute. He has murdered thousands of people, and openly announces his intention to offer de jure institutionalisation of de facto apartheid in Palestine. The reaction from Australia’s political class has ranged from warm welcome in the Coalition, to mild disapproval on the left extreme of the ALP.
Trump merely bragged what he could get away with. Netanyahu proves that no matter how extreme, racist and rejectionist Israel gets, the response from the two major political parties will at most consist of lukewarm expressions of concern.
Netanyahu’s record of savagery
For almost two months in 2014, from early July to late August, Israel bombed Gaza. The destruction was immense. Whole suburbs were levelled and razed. Entire families were wiped out at a time, as 216 people were killed in attacks on their homes. Gaza’s infrastructure was devastated. Ambulances and medical personnel were bombed at least 24 times. Some 18 000 homes were damaged or destroyed. 100,000 Palestinians were displaced, out of a population of close to 2 million. Israel damaged 63 water facilities, and destroyed 23. The only power plant in Gaza was bombed four times. 2,251 Palestinians were killed, including 1462 civilians, and 551 children. Over 11 000 were injured. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children were left needing “direct and specialised” psycho-social support.
Responding to mounting horror at all the death and destruction, Netanyahu urged people around the world not to respond too sympathetically to the horrifying images. The Palestinians “want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can. They use telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause.”
Read the full article by Michael Brull at newmatilda.com.