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The Ghoulish Ostentatiousness of Israel’s Latest War Crimes [1]
['Jack Mirkinson', 'Bryce Covert', 'Kim Kelly', 'Jeet Heer', 'Chris Lehmann', 'Dave Zirin', 'Jules Boykoff', 'Y.L. Al-Sheikh', 'Christophe Jaffrelot', 'James Bamford']
Date: 2024-04-04 14:00:00+00:00
World / The Ghoulish Ostentatiousness of Israel’s Latest War Crimes It’s as if Israel is flaunting its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Palestinians are standing next to a vehicle in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on April 2, 2024, where employees from the World Central Kitchen, including foreigners, were killed in an Israeli air strike. (Majdi Fathi / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The past few days of Israel’s war on Gaza have been hard to bear. In quick succession, the world watched Israel withdraw from the Al-Shifa hospital complex, revealing stomach-churning scenes of death and destruction; bomb Iran’s embassy in Syria, which could escalate the conflict across the Middle East; and kill seven humanitarian aid workers with World Central Kitchen (WCK) in what even some US officials said appeared to be intentional air strikes.
These actions drew varying levels of condemnation. For instance, the attack on the WCK workers, most of whom were foreign nationals, was shameless enough to elicit criticism from from President Joe Biden, who considers WCK founder José Andrés a friend—but there is no sign that his performance of anger will cause Israel to change its tactics or the United States to stop shipping billions of dollars of weapons to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The assault on Gaza has been horrific from the start. But it is hard to shake the feeling that the near-total leeway Israel has been granted by the United States and its allies has gone to its head. Bulldozing bodies in plain sight. Bombing diplomatic facilities. Targeting aid workers from the most Washington-friendly relief organization. There is a ghoulish, ostentatious quality to these actions. It’s as if Israel is showing off, flaunting its ability to cross every known line of international humanitarian law and get away with it.
And make no mistake: Israel is getting away with it. All you have to do to understand that is to look at the aftermath of the WCK attack.
The attack on the WCK workers—which killed seven people, including a US citizen—was as obvious a crime as it is possible to commit in warfare. WCK had given Israel the coordinates of its location. The workers were traveling in a special “deconflicted” area. The WCK logo was visible on the top of its vehicles. But Israel bombed the WCK convoy anyway, striking each of its three vehicles one by one.
What’s more, WCK is not just any relief organization. Andrés is a global celebrity with ties to the international political establishment. WCK had been working closely with the Israeli government both in Gaza and in Israel proper. It would be difficult to think of a more mainstream, well-connected group.
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[1] Url:
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/world-central-kitchen-al-shifa-hospital-israel-gaza/
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