The West on Trial in Gaza

Jan 19, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

It is just over one hundred days since the Middle East once more erupted into violence. This time however it was different in many ways while remaining the same for Palestinians over the last seventy-five years. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, millions of Palestinians were evicted from their homes and their lands. What is taking place in Gaza today is a continuation of that tragedy.

The difference is the sheer brutality, the horrific and merciless slaughter of men, women and children, including babies. There are deliberate, systematic industrial type massacres. One cannot help to wonder as to the type of people that are executing this mass murder of Palestinians. Have they lost all human feelings, do they have mothers, fathers, siblings, children, how can persons become so monstrous?

At the time of writing almost 25,000 Gazans have been killed, some 10,000 still missing, presumed dead. Almost half of the dead and wounded are children, infants. Mostly women make up the rest of the dead. The terrible sufferings have torn the mask from the faces of those who talk about, “Democracy, Human Rights, Rule of Law” and other exalted slogans. The West, the United States, The United Kingdom, Canada, Germany among others have lost all sense of mortality and stand condemned in the court of the World’s public opinion. Those countries are supporting Israel with weapons, intelligence, money and diplomacy

This would shock many who used to see those societies as the ultimate in freedom and democracy. However, they should not have been surprised.

Those countries have not overcome their own histories. Their racist past is alive and well in the mentality of the ruling classes. Their history of slavery, lynching and genocide of native population still dominate the attitude and influence their actions of those in the US and UK. The fascist mentally seems to linger in the German ruling circles.

That is why not a word of sympathy hardly escape their lips. Whenever it does it rings very hollow. They do not condemn the murder of more than one hundred United Nations workers, nor the killing of almost one hundred Journalists, or their imprisonment and the deliberate targeting of their families. They are dead silent about the more than one hundred health workers killed at hospitals in ambulances and in their homes.

The “Western Democracies” have abandoned all pretences of being just and peace loving. Every attempt at calling for a case fire at the United Nation have been sabotaged. They continue to supply the bombs, bullets and other military equipment to kill Palestinians. The ruling elite have been ignoring the demands of their own populations to halt the mass murder of innocent civilians. To crown their hypocrisy, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany have joined with Israel in the case of Genocide that was brought by South Africa.

This should remove any doubts as to the real nature of the ruling classes in those countries. The ordinary working people of those “Western Democracies” must not delude themselves that they are safe from the viciousness of their rules. Experiences has shown that whenever any of their own citizens oppose the apartheid regime in Israel the US leave them at the mercy of the racist Israeli regime. Those brave enough to stand up can expect no protection from their own government. Israel can do as it pleases.

Recall in 1967 that Israel attacked a United States of America spy ship and killed 34 United States nationals, wounded 171 and damaged the ship “USS Liberty”. Israel got away with this. Indeed, the US seems to want people to forget this attack by their own ally.

Recall too Rachel Corrie, just 23 years old who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer when she was protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Gaza on March 16^th, 2003. The United States did nothing to give justice to an American Citizen.

Only a few days ago an American Journalist, Gonzalo Lira who was living in Ukraine died in prison at the hands of the Fascist regime there. His ‘crime” was to speak the truth about what was happening in the Russia/Ukraine war. His father said that for the month he was in prison the United States Embassy or State Department did nothing to help him. They allowed him to die in prison at the hands of the Zelensky regime.

Almost Sixty Years ago, Dr. Cheddi Jagan sat down to record the role of the United States and United Kingdom in the sabotage of Democracy in Guyana. He titled his book “The West on Trial”. Had he been alive today and was writing about the Gaza he would not have had the same title. It would have been “The West in Guilty of Genocide”

Sincerely,

Donald Ramotar

Former President of Guyana

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• Donald Ramotar, Former President of Guyana, Gaza, murder, violence

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