On May 25, 2020, an event shook the world: the murder of African-American George Floyd in the United States. That incident unleashed a wave of protests around the planet. Before and after his tragic death, dozens of citizens were also victims of heinous crimes, whose deaths went unnoticed on the front pages of newspapers. Nor did they mention them on news screens, or in the gigantic media community that makes life on the Internet.
On May 29, a 32-year-old young man with autism, Lias al Halak, was shot and killed in cold blood by a group of soldiers while on his way to his educational center. The criminals justified themselves by saying that he «carried a package in his hands that looked like a weapon».
That same day, Fadi Samara, 41, was shot dead by several soldiers while driving through his village. A victim of the same crime, a child with Down syndrome was also injured.
Two weeks earlier, a 15-year-old teenager, Zaid Fadl Qasya, was shot to the head. Those responsible were military troops guarding a refugee camp.
On February 6, soldiers killed four young men, including 19-year-old Yazan Abu, hit by a bullet when he was protesting the demolition of his home. A day later, a 17-year-old teenager, Mohammad Salman Tama al-Hadad, was killed by a soldier by a shot to the heart.
On February 23, Mohammad al-Naem, 27, was assassinated by various military officials. His victimizers also dishonored his body by hanging it from the blades of a backhoe. This was reported by the Chilean journalist and writer Pablo Jofre Leal.
Doesn’t the world see or feel Palestine?
So why were these events made invisible? Why are none of the murderers imprisoned and convicted? Well, because they happened thousands of miles from the United States. Furthermore, the victims are Palestinians and their assassins are Israeli military. It is a genocidal government whose crimes against humanity have gone unpunished for more than half a century.
Pablo Jofre Leal, a contributor to various news channels, stated in an article for Telesur that “Palestine has thousands of George Floyd. Criminal actions against them are the daily bread. They are part of the essence of an entity (Government of Israel) whose motor is murder, robbery and looting”.
«Today, millions cry over the murder of George Floyd, and that is just and necessary. But, we also need to cry and do justice for the thousands and thousands of the murdered Palestinian people. They are men, women, children and the elderly massacred (…) homes destroyed, demolished to the ground, and separated by a wall of segregation”, denounced the journalist.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) counted at least 300 Palestinians killed and 29,718 injured in 2018. The following year, in 2019, in the midst of the information blockade, the National Meeting of Families of Palestinian Martyrs denounced the murder of at least 149 people.
There were not even global protests in 2014, when Israeli military forces indiscriminately murdered more than 2,300 Palestinians. They also injured more than 10,600 in an operation to invade the Gaza Strip. None of those figures include the thousands who, over the decades, have died as a result of the Israeli blockade. All are victims of hunger, lack of healthcare and medicines, fear and despair.
The formula of anti-Semitism
Lawyer and Middle Eastern expert Raimundo Kabchi has an explanation. “The United States and Europe created a norm or crime that makes many tremble: anti-Semitism (hostility towards Jews based on religious or ethnic prejudices). It is an imaginary creation, because there is no such thing as a Semitic race”, he explained in an exclusive interview.
“The term Semitic refers to the family of peoples that settled in Mesopotamia and the Near East, thousands of years before Christ. So, if the Semitic race really existed, the first would be the Arab people. The Semite is descended from Shem, the son of Noah. Abraham was the son of Tare, a descendant of Shem, and his first-born was Ishmael, from whom the Arabs came, and not Isaac, the patriarch of the Jews».
So, “any position adverse to the aggressive, racist and destructive policy of Israel, is classified as anti-Semitic. If you can criticize Christianity and be an atheist, you can even deny the existence of the Prophet Muhammad. But, you cannot criticize Israeli policy, because it is taken as a religious condemnation. It does not matter that this policy assassinates, destroys and tramples on the rights of a people”.
Kabchi sets out a clear example: Roger Garaudy, French philosopher and politician. At first, he was ignored when he wrote books questioning Christianity and Islam. But, after publishing «The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics» in 1995, defending Holocaust denialist theses, he was prosecuted and sentenced by the French justice to a fine and six months in prison.
«That is the dilemma. People do not condemn Israel or protest against them not because they don’t want to, but because the great world economic powers created this dreaded concept of anti-Semitism”, said Kabchi. In addition, he assures that those same powers are capable of arresting, killing and violating all laws to defend Israel.
The world propaganda apparatus
In addition, the Lebanese-Venezuelan lawyer presented another compelling reason: the global propaganda apparatus. “Israel, the aggressor country, annuls a people, violates its human rights, and presents itself as the victim. Meanwhile, the people of Palestine, who have owned their lands for 10,000 years, are presented as the perpetrator. An advertisement in Hollywood or in 85% of the media in Zionist hands and faithful to the designs of Washington is enough», he said.
It is precisely here that the power of Washington comes into play, which has blocked any vestige of condemnation of Israel presented before the General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council. In large part, it does so in obedience to the Jewish economic lobby that dominates American politics.
Kabchi says that there is another factor at play. «The plan of international Zionism, backed by the United States, England and France, is for Israel’s borders to extend from the Euphrates to the Nile. Right in that territory there are great oil, gas and other mineral wealth.»
For this reason, in the most recent proposal for an ‘agreement’ between Palestine and Israel, former US President Donald Trump proposed “to give all the lands to Israel. Meanwhile, he only made promises to Palestine, and on the condition that they have to sit down and negotiate”, recalled Kabchi.
He also indicated that this idea of ‘agreement’ comes from a man who publicly declared that he achieved his mission in Syria: seize the large oil wells. He is the same character who criticized Barack Obama for handing over the exploitation of oil in Libya to other forces.
Future prospects for Palestine
“It is unfortunate that the same humanity that fought against German Nazism, racism in Japan, apartheid in South Africa; Today, tolerates Israel’s crimes against humanity and accept the creation of a racist and genocidal State hat also promotes the exclusion of the Palestinians. Furthermore, it does so in the light of any norm of international law”, stated Kabchi.
In this regard, Jofre Leal considers it shameful that the world does not rise up “with indignation, anger and rage against Zionism. No one dares bring them before international tribunals and judge them for their crimes, as was done against the Nazis in Nuremberg; or the one created to judge crimes in Rwanda”.
On his part, Kabchi reaffirmed that beyond signifying support, “there is fear in the face of criticism. It does not lack the will, but rather the decision to face the justice bought by Zionism. Whoever does so runs the risk of being prosecuted».
There are two clear examples: Iran and Venezuela. Two nations that have refused to maintain political and diplomatic relations with Israel, critical of its aggressive policy. Both are victims of financial blockades and innumerable unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States.
Thus, the wave of global indignation grows against the racist violence in the Western powers. Statues are also knocked down, shops are burned and justice is demanded against police violence. As that happens, every day children in Palestine wake up and risk being hit by a bomb or a Zionist gunshot. Unfortunately, no one is alarmed by this situation.
In conclusion, if George Floyd had been Palestinian and murdered in Palestine, along with his family, massacred by Israeli forces, Anonymous would never have reappeared, the #BlackLivesMatter movement would not exist and racism would not be the subject of global debate.