by Mark Langabeer member of Hastings and Rye Labour Party
This Channel 4 Dispatches programme should be watched by all labour movement activists and it should be shown in Labour Party and trade union meetings. It is an account of the brutality of the Israeli military assault on Gaza at an early stage in the war.
A group of Palestinian reporters and cameramen interviewed families and their children, medics and other emergency staff about their experiences in the war waged by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The programme reminds us that the bombardment of Gaza is the most intense anywhere in the world in this century. It is allegedly a response to the killing of over 1100 Israelis by Hamas and the taking of over 250 hostages, but the killing, death and destruction, a collective punishment of the people of Gaza, eclipse what happened on October 7 by a huge margin.
Some of the scenes filmed in this documentary are harrowing to watch, because so often the victims are children. Dispatches reported that by the time the programme was made, over 35,000 are killed and it was estimated that as many as 10,000 unnaccounted for, their bodies still underneath the tonnes of rubble.
Of those killed, the programme records, 14,000 are children and this number will grow as the Israeli military launch more attacks in the south of Gaza, around the city of Rafah, to where many refugees have moved. Many Palestinians believe that the Israelis’ aim is to drive them out of Gaza and into the Sinai Desert.
Gaza is a ‘graveyard for children’ – UN
Israeli leaders claim that the war is about ‘dismantling Hamas’, but in my view, this conflict will not be solved by military means. In fact, it will increase the hatred among Palestinians, and Arabs in the whole Middle East, towards the Israeli state. The United Nations has described Gaza as a graveyard for children.
One of the events featured in the programme is the attack at the Al Shifa Hospital, where hundreds had fled from the bombing in the streets around. The IDF claimed that Hamas were using the hospital as a shield and there were underground bunkers and tunnels. Afterwards, a British-based consultant who had treated many of the wounded in the hospital, gave an account of what he considered war crimes to the Metropolitan Police war crimes unit. He was later banned from travelling by the German authorities, although this was lifted, after a judicial review.
This doctor made it clear that he opposed terrorism, regardless of which side was conducting it. He was a doctor, pure and simple and he treated the injured.
The Dispatches programme noted that the Israeli military were restricting food, fuel, water and electricity to the population of Gaza. The IDF claim that humanitarian aid provided had been stolen by Hamas, but this is part of their stock reply to deflect criticism of their man-made humanitarian crisis.
The appalling fact is that the people of Gaza are increasingly threatened by malnutrition and disease. The IDF even restrict access to medical attention: one seriously injured man, the programme reported, was held unnecessarily at an Israeli checkpoint and subsequently died. As usual, the IDF claim they have ‘no information’ about this incident.
Most of those killed have no political affiliation
A Dispatches reporter interviewed a child whose family has been killed by the bombing of their home. The IDF claim that they don’t target civilians, however their assault on Gaza has resulted in the deaths of those that have no political affiliations and traumatised many of the children. Around 70,000 have suffered injuries, many of them life-changing, involving the loss of limbs or severe burns. Even one of the filming team was reported killed after a bombing raid. One medic they interviewed described how even ambulances were hit by the IDF.
Calls for a ceasefire have fallen on deaf ears, although in the West it is only the ‘political class’ who are now opposed to it. Tens of millions of ordinary workers and youth are appalled by the killings and are outraged by the continued political support for Israel. It is time that military supplies to the Israeli regime are halted because the killing of Palestinians civilians is a war crime. If Putin is a war criminal, then the leaders of Israel should be treated in the same way.
The Tories, have buckets of crocodile tears about limiting the loss of life, but they have backed the Israeli Government’s so-called ‘right to self defence’. Unfortunately, the Labour leadership have been undistinguishable from the Tories.
What we should fight for in the Labour Party is for a a ceasefire and, if so-called ‘international law’ means anything, for a commitment to ending all military supplies, and for sanctions on the Israeli regime. Labour should advance socialist ideas that offer a way out of the endless nightmare of conflict that surrounds that state.
The programme can be watched from the Channel 4 website, here.
