By Michael Pröbsting, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 8 November 2023, www.thecommunists.net
Since weeks, we have chanted on the streets that Israel is child killer. A new article published by Al Jazeera – the lonely voice of reason among the global mainstream media – fully confirms the accuracy of our slogan. *
The author – Sarah Shamim – compares the number of children killed in the latest Gaza War with that in other conflicts of the last decades (Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan). For this, she uses the official figures which have been provided by UN organisation respectively the Ukrainian government.
When the death rate for children is calculated per day, the result is as clear as astonishing. As the table below shows, Israel slaughters many more children than any other power has done in modern times. In average, 136 children have been killed per day in Gaza since 7 October while the comparative figures in other conflicts vacillate between 0,6 and 3 children killed per day.
To avoid any misunderstanding: we have no intention to minimise the cruelty of the reactionary wars of oppression which have been waged in other countries by Russian and American imperialism respectively their local allies. This is why the RCIT has sided with the oppressed peoples in Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan and called for the defeat of the foreign invaders and local dictators.
Still, one can not but note the extraordinary bloodthirst of the Zionist state which is focused on killing as many Palestinians as possible. It is evident that Israel is a serial killer of children.
Unsurprisingly, the Israeli army claims that it is only targeting Hamas militants. But this is just another blatant lie – like the “beheaded babies” and the “Hamas missile which killed hundreds at the Al Ahli hospital”. Hardly anyone outside of Israel believes such bizarre statements anymore. According to the latest figures published today, the Zionists have killed at least 10,569 killed in Gaza, including 4,324 children, 2,823 women, 649 elderly with another 26,475 wounded. In other words, 76% of all dead are women, children and elderly people.
The composition of those killed suggests that Israel has targeted civilian areas with houses where families live. Hence, one can assume that these families were in most cases accompanied by husbands or fathers and, therefore, most men killed will also have been civilians since most Hamas fighters will have been mobilized in these times and will not stay with their families. In short, only a small proportion of those killed have been militants. It is not the civilians which have been “collateral damage” – what a cynical phrase of imperialist killers! – but rather the other way.
All this is not surprising since it has become well-known that Israel wants to enforce a new Nakba, i.e. another expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homeland. To achieve such goal, Israel must terrorize and humiliate the Palestinian people as much as possible so that the flee in panic.
In fact, such a barbarous policy corresponds to the deeply colonialist and racist nature of the Zionist state. This state believes that its people are “Herremenschen” while the Palestinians and, more generally, the Arabs and Muslims are only “Untermenschen”. Hence, the Zionists consider themselves entitled to exterminate as many Palestinians as possible and to annihilate their national existence.
It is all the more important in such apocalyptic times, that socialists, democrats and righteous people support the Palestinians and its resistance forces by any means necessary. We must build an international solidarity movement which imposes a comprehensive boycott against the Zionist monster. We have already seen solidarity actions of workers in the U.S., Belgium and Italy to stop the transport of arms to Israel. Likewise, we see a wave of boycott actions in many Muslim countries which are directed against corporations of Western countries supporting the Zionist war against Gaza. Such actions are highly welcome and should be extended to a global boycott movement against the Zionist monster.
Governments in countries which claim to support the cause of the Palestinians must be forced to transform words into deeds and to completely rupture diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.
Finally, let us never forget that it is those imperialist governments of Western countries which like to lecture the world about democracy and human rights; that it is these – and nearly only these! – states which unconditionally support Israel and its mass murder of the Palestinians! It is these – and nearly only these! – states which do not support an immediate ceasefire but send them billions of US-Dollars of military and financial aid! In other words, the U.S. and the Western European states are active supporters of Israeli state terrorism.
The Bible says: “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” [Hosea 8:7] I have no doubt that Israel and the Western rulers – who still imagine that they are masters of humanity – will soon have first-hand experience of this basic truth!
Victory to the Palestinian resistance! Defeat Israel!
Table: Children Killed Per Day
Gaza Ukraine Iraq Syria Yemen Afghanistan
136 3 2 1,5 0,7 0,6
*) Sarah Shamim: Is Israel’s Gaza war the deadliest conflict for children in modern times? 7 November 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/is-israels-gaza-war-the-deadliest-conflict-for-children-in-modern-times
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We refer readers to a special page on our website where more a number of RCIT documents on the 2023 Gaza War are compiled, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-the-gaza-uprising-2023/.