Eric Salerno dal Washington Post

Eric Salerno
Ieri alle 7:36 ·
Un'analisi perfetta del venerdì nero di Gaza da parte del Washington Post che sottolinea
l'uso esagerato della forza da parte di Israele e soprattutto il fatto che il governo israeliano
ritiene di poter agire come e quando vuole. "Uccidere palestinesi, per Israele, ha un costo
politico minimo", scrive il quotidiano più importante della capitale americana e una delle
voci più libere della stampa mondiale.
Today's WorldView
Edited by Max J. Rosenthal and Ruby Mellen
BY ISHAAN THAROOR
For Israel, there's little political cost to killing Palestinians
This weekend in Gaza, Palestinians buried their dead after Israeli soldiers killed at least 15
Palestinian protesters and wounded hundreds more on Friday. About 30,000 Palestinians
had gathered near the fenced barrier separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, both protesting
the stifling blockade on their territory and mourning the dispossession of their ancestral
lands at the hands of the Israeli state.
As in many other Palestinian protests that take place in the occupied territories, most
protesters were unarmed and nonviolent. Families picnicked in the shadow of the Israeli
border and flew Palestinian flags. But like so many other Palestinian protests, this one
ended in tears.
“I took my grandchildren. We went to a peaceful demonstration,” Fayik Sabbagh told The
Washington Post. “We went there to tell them this is our land, but what we found was
different.”
Israeli authorities claimed they opened fire in response to some protesters who had
encroached near the fence, burning tires and hurling stones or molotov cocktails. Footage
that emerged from the chaotic scene suggested Israeli soldiers targeted unarmed
protesters, including some who were running away and were shot from a distance by
snipers.
One victim was 20-year-old Badr Sabbagh, Fayik’s son, who was killed just minutes after
arriving to watch the protests. “He asked for a cigarette, I gave it to him, he had two puffs,
and then he was shot in the head,” his brother Mohammed told The Post.
The killings marked the worst day of violence in Gaza since the 2014 war between the
Islamist group Hamas and the Israeli military, in which the United Nations said at least
1,462 Palestinian civilians died. And the aftermath of the protests underscored both the
desperate futility of the Palestinian struggle and the relative impunity with which Israel
can snuff out Palestinian lives.
The right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered neither
sympathy nor remorse. “Israel is acting determinedly and decisively to protect its
sovereignty and the security of its citizens,” Netanyahu said. Defense Minister Avigdor
Liberman rebuffed international calls for an investigation, saying that “under no
circumstances” would there be an inquiry into the incident and opining that the Israeli
soldiers manning the fence “deserve a commendation.”
On Saturday, the IDF even boasted that its troops had maintained total control of the
situation down to the number of bullets fired. But the Israeli military soon deleted the
tweet as more footage surfaced of panicked Palestinians being gunned down while trying to
flee.
“These are the predictable outcomes of a manifestly illegal command: Israeli soldiers
shooting live ammunition at unarmed Palestinian protesters,” said Amit Gilutz, a
spokesman for B’Tselem, a Jerusalem-based leftist organization that monitors human
rights abuses in the occupied territories. “What is predictable, too, is that no one — from
the snipers on the ground to top officials whose policies have turned Gaza into a giant
prison — is likely to be ever held accountable.”
The Israeli leadership had reason to feel comfortable in its defiance. The most vocal
criticism from abroad came from Iran and Turkey; censure from either country is more
likely a source of relish for Netanyahu than unease. And at the United Nations, the Trump
administration blocked the Security Council from issuing a statement that called for an
“independent and transparent investigation” and affirmed the Palestinians’ right to
peaceful protest.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States was “deeply
saddened” by Friday’s events. But Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s leading envoy for Israeli and
Palestinian negotiations, undercut that message by taking Israel’s side and pinning the
blame on Hamas for the “hostile march.”
Indeed, the Trump administration has helped stoke Palestinian outrage. Across the
occupied territories, Palestinian factions have called for protests every day until March 15,
“the day after the anniversary of Israel’s independence in 1948, known to Palestinians as
the ‘Naqba,’ or catastrophe,” as my colleagues reported. It also happens that the White
House has chosen that date to open its new embassy in Jerusalem, a move that reinforced
the Palestinian view that Washington can no longer be trusted as a fair broker in the long-
stalled peace process.