XPost: uk.legal, soc.culture.jewish, alt.news-media   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.atheism   
   From: void@invalid.noy   
      
   The issue of Israelis physically blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza has   
   been reported in the mainstream media over the past few months. In   
   March, CNN’s Clarissa Ward reported on Israeli right-wing activists   
   seeking to block the crossings into Gaza where humanitarian aid was   
   being transported in with their bodies. Ward pushed back on the   
   demonstrators’ claims that the rice bags were being filled with   
   bullets by explaining that Gazans were dying of starvation, to no   
   avail.   
      
   On Friday, the Biden administration issued a selective sanctioning of   
   the primary organization blocking the aid “Tzav 9” — meaning “Order   
   9,” a name alluding to the Israel military reserve call-up order.   
      
   State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller commented:   
      
   “For months, individuals from Tzav 9 have repeatedly sought to thwart   
   the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blockading   
   roads, sometimes violently, along their route from Jordan to Gaza,   
   including in the West Bank… We will not tolerate acts of sabotage and   
   violence targeting this essential humanitarian assistance… We will   
   continue to use all tools at our disposal to promote accountability   
   for those who attempt or undertake such heinous acts, and we expect   
   and urge that Israeli authorities do the same.”   
      
   But the idea implicitly promoted here that “Tzav 9” are the only bad   
   actors to blame is highly misleading. The blocking of humanitarian aid   
   is only aided by these activists — it is the Israeli government which   
   is the main party using starvation as a weapon against the whole Gaza   
   population. It’s a key part of its genocide.   
      
   In her report, Clarissa Ward noted correctly that a recent Israeli   
   Democracy Institute poll showed that 68% — over two-thirds — of Jewish   
   Israelis, oppose humanitarian aid to Gaza. The poll actually showed   
   80% among right-wing voters (who constitute about 2/3 of the   
   population). And it didn’t matter if Hamas and UNRWA were excluded   
   from supplying the aid — they still opposed it. In other words, the   
   protesters of “Tzav 9” are just the tip of the iceberg.   
      
   In fact, these right-wing activists have now been joined by another   
   notable group: Kibbutzniks who are also blocking humanitarian aid to   
   Gaza with their bodies.   
      
   The kibbutz society in Israel is typically known for its left-wing   
   socialist vein. But since the beginning, it is and has been   
   instrumental in Israeli colonialist takeover and apartheid. As The   
   Kibbutz Movement’s chair, Nir Meir, said recently, “The settlers   
   aren’t wrong. The right-wing is correct: That is the way to seize and   
   hold land, and their claim that, any place we Israelis leave, the   
   Arabs will come in our place, is correct. The right is also correct in   
   its path: It’s by settlement and only by settlement that sovereignty   
   can be imposed.”   
      
   On Sunday, the Israeli centrist daily newspaper Maariv reported that   
   videos were now circulating of kibbutz members who were also blocking   
   humanitarian help. The embedded video features two men from kibbutz   
   Sdeh Boker (actually Ben-Gurion’s kibbutz), and they are activists in   
   the “Koah Kaplan” — the “Kaplan Force,” the organization protesting   
   the current government. It is named after Kaplan Street in Tel-Aviv,   
   where the main demonstrations have taken place. The Maariv video,   
   which they say may be from February, shows the kibbutz members’   
   blocking of trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza, and that   
   “Tsav 9” has confirmed that “Kaplan Force” was part of the effort to   
   block aid in recent months.   
      
   Here’s what the two activists say in the video:   
      
   “I’m Boaz Sapir from kibbutz Sdeh Boker, I’m here to pass on a clear   
   message…the message is that there is no right or left, that all the   
   kidnapped return, alive.”   
      
   “I’m Gilad Shavit from kibbutz Sdeh Boker, together with Boaz… I’m   
   coming to bring the message, that the kidnapped belong to the whole   
   nation of Israel, the whole nation of Israel wants to return the   
   kidnapped, but the government has forgotten this for a moment. It is   
   not possible — we will not give any [humanitarian] assistance to the   
   Hamas, as long as the kidnapped are not returned — that’s our   
   message.”   
      
   That very message was also voiced early on in the genocide, by the man   
   who has recently been elected to lead the Israeli Labor party — Yair   
   Golan.   
      
   Golan came into Labor from the left, having been part of the Meretz   
   party, which failed to make the electoral threshold in the November   
   2022 elections. On October 13, Golan advocated for starving Gazans   
   outright:   
      
   “First of all, close all the electricity switches to Gaza. I think   
   that in this battle, it is forbidden to allow a humanitarian effort.   
   We need to say to them: listen, until the [captives] are released,   
   from our side, you can die from starvation. It’s totally legitimate.”   
   In its report, Maariv asks the obvious question: “Will the American   
   government enact sanctions upon ‘Kaplan Force’ activists?”   
      
   I think we all know the answer. The Biden administration is not going   
   to sanction a movement that represents Israeli “democracy,” since it   
   ostensibly fights the government and demonstrates a political   
   plurality in Israel.   
      
   Biden wants to get away with symbolic gestures like in March, when he   
   sanctioned four settlers “that threaten the peace, security, or   
   stability of the West Bank”. Columbia University professor Rashid   
   Khalidi remarked:   
      
   “It’s a little bit like there’s a raging fire, they pour a cup of   
   water on it, and at the same time they’re providing gasoline to fan   
   the flames… Sanctioning a few individuals who are part of a settlement   
   drive that has been backed by the Israeli government for fifty-six   
   years is absurd in and of itself. You either sanction the   
   multibillion-dollar driver of this, which is the Israeli government   
   and American tax-free donations, or you don’t pretend that you’re   
   opposed to settlements.”   
      
   The U.S. should be preventing genocide, not playing games with   
   sanctions on this or that organization. Israel as a whole is   
   committing this genocide. Instead, Biden is only going after the   
   low-hanging fruit of far right-wing actors, a symbolic act while   
   continuing his policy of unwavering support for the Israeli genocide.   
      
   The Israeli kibbutzniks, often held up by liberal Democrats as the   
   best of Israeli society, are no different from “Tzav 9” when it comes   
   to blocking life-saving aid to Palestinians in Gaza. And their words   
   and deeds reveal just how genocidal Israeli society is as a whole.   
      
   https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/the-kibbutzniks-who-are-blocking-   
   umanitarian-aid-to-gaza/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)