Israel’s unforgivable irresponsibility toward the world

This is yet another picture, similar to the ones we have been seeing in the newspapers since the first day of Israel’s attack on Gaza…

In this picture, we see a child stuck under the ruins after an aerial bombing. We can only see his face, the upper part of his shoulder and his hands, which he held up. His face looks like it has been covered with white paint, possibly due to the debris.

The Palestinian child is waiting hopelessly to be rescued. We can almost hear his screams through the image. This picture taken last Sunday, Aug. 3, by Reuters agency is a picture captured during Israel’s aerial attack on Rafah, in the south of Gaza Strip.

In the future, we will remember the summer of 2014 with the pictures of the children of Gaza. It will not be easy to wipe out the images of children that were stuck under the ruins of their homes, children that were killed while playing at the beach, or those who were shot in schools that were under the protection of the United Nations.

We will never forget about the picture of the slippers of the children long gone at the beach, where they lay dead.

According to the statement made by the United Nations, the death toll of Palestinian’s due to Israel’s attacks since July 8 has reached 1,717 by Aug. 3. The identities of 343 of the deaths have not been determined according to the U.N.  The number of “fighters” that have been killed is 198.

Furthermore, according to the U.N.’s observations, 1,176 people of the total dead are civilians, 573 of them were either women or children. The ratio here is equal to one-third of the sum.

UNICEF records the number of deaths of children in Gaza as 296.

These numbers demonstrate that Palestinian women and children are the primary victims of Israel’s Gaza operation.

These numbers alone are clearly indicative of the fact that the Netanyahu government has made no discrimination in its attacks; for instance, leaving children out of the operation against Hamas, for whatever reason it conducted.

Today, a government that does not refrain from targeting children is in power in Israel.

The attack on Gaza is inhumane as it is and there is nothing left to say to the political will except that it is Israel that is responsible for this massacre.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not only violated all of the rules of international law, but has also defied these rules.

The results of his horrible actions are not solely the deaths of the innocent lives in Gaza. As a result of Netanyahu’s actions, the action of defying rules is becoming a permanent international norm in the world in 2014.

It is clear now that the principal moral norms people need to own and the principles that should be valid in the international arena have eroded as Israel’s actions haven’t met any sanctions, have not received any reactions, especially from the Western world.

It is not only the Palestinian’s in Gaza that are paling the cost, but also, even if indirectly, all of the victims who are subjected to injustice, violence and aggression all around the world.

As long as Israel’s actions continue to be met by indifference, the influence of reactions to be shown to crises similar to Gaza will weaken.

For instance, if a Western country that remains indifferent to Israel will react to other massacres or violation of rights in other countries, it will lose its credibility because of adopting a double standard.
From now on, other despotic regimes around the world will cover up their own atrocities by using Israel’s example as a shield.

The result is that the world we live in is becoming increasingly unlivable each day.

There is one more misdeed Israel is committing and that is the fact that Israel is giving no choice to people who have nothing in their hands to stop this massacre, but to push them into a state of  helplessness and hopelessness.

When we see the look on the kid’s face, stuck in the ruins of a building after an aerial attack, the guilt we carry with us becomes even bigger.