For humanity's sake bring an end to the genocide in Gaza

Jamaican-born dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson was the first person, in the late 1970s, to make me completely aware as a young undergraduate that Margaret Thatcher’s England was “a bitch”… but there’s still “no escaping it”, Rishi Sunak’s England is an even bigger bitch.

How can any decent human being not condemn Jerusalem’s genocidal assault on the children of Palestine caught up in Benjamin Netanyahu's merciless bombing of Gaza, which has followed a “surprise” Hamas false-flag incursion across the most technologically-advanced border on the planet that is more than capable of alerting the Israel Defence Forces if a rat is approaching it.

But Sunak and the UK government seems to condone the genocide… defending the carnage of innocent children by calling it Israel’s right to “defend itself” rather than the slaughter of innocent lives which it really is.

On 7 October this year the Israel Defence Forces staggeringly left the border virtually unguarded to allow Hamas — a body it created when Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat was ready to discuss a peaceful solution to the Palestinian crisis following Israel’s occupation of the territory after WW II — to incredibly give Netanyahu the perfect excuse to bomb the crap out of Gaza in 2023.

I am horrified that the UK government condones this and that an unelected tyrant of Indian descent, whose family immigrated to Britain from east Africa, pretends this is an acceptable response to genocide (there’s no other word for it).

A protest in Cardiff on Saturday, which filled St Mary Street ahead of the Wales-Barbarians game at the Principality Stadium, got absolutely no coverage in Wales On Sunday, MediaWales’ flagship newspaper which, if you’d believe its masthead, is the “pride of the nation”.

Well I hate to say this but ignoring a hefty protest against Israeli genocide in Gaza is not something to be proud of, it’s shameful… shame on you MediaWales!

The following day in King’s Square Barry there was a vigil for Gaza that MediaWales showed no interest in attending either, failing to respond to an invitation to do so, as did all the local papers.

During that vigil Barry-resident Sheree Conibear spoke passionately about the plight of the innocent people caught up in the atrocities taking place in her homeland.

The statistics are horrendous and something every human being should be ashamed to read. Just hearing about it is more than enough to bring a tear to the eye but having to live through it must be simply unimaginable.

But if you walk the corridors of power in the world, hey-ho it’s just Israel defending itself, nothing wrong with cleansing Gaza of the remaining Palestinian population who have called the land home for centuries before Israeli occupation after WW II.

In Barry on Sunday Conibear, struggling to hold back the tears and keep the loudspeaker from cutting out, remembered the more than 9,000 people who have been killed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since 7 October alone, "with more than 1,500 young men arrested and tortured".

“Over 3,500 children alone have been killed,” she added. “This is the greatest violation of international law. Killing unarmed civilians and children.

“If I stand here reading all of the names of people who have been killed over the last 75 years since the occupation began I would stand here for the rest of my life.

“This is not an equal fight or war, this is an occupation. This did not start on 7 October... this is a brutal occupation built with the goal of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”

Conibear continued: “The brave Palestinian people have endured 75 years of murder, 75 years of torture, 75 years of stealing Palestinian land and demolishing homes, 75 years of children and adults imprisoned as hostages by Israel.”

It’s an interesting fact that many of the ancestors of families now living in Israel came from Europe before the end of WW II… expelled from Germany during the acts of genocide carried out by Adolf Hitler’s Nazis, which are now being mimicked to some degree by Israel in Gaza.

“Did you hear about the 31,000 Palestinians, 50 per cent of whom were children, in 2018 who were killed and murdered mostly through shots direct to the head,” Conibear cried. “You didn’t because there was no death or attack on Israel. Only Israeli killing Palestinians. That doesn’t make news, because the value of Israeli life is higher than that of Palestinian life.

“Did you know in 2014 19,000 Palestinians were killed, half of whom were children. You probably didn’t because no Israelis were killed, only Palestinians. It didn’t even make the news!

“Do you know what the Gaza Strip is? It is a small area the size of Swansea, a quarter of the size of London, where 2.2 million people are living in an open prison without any crime being committed, just the crime of being Palestinian and living in an occupied land. Every time they try to leave by land or sea they are shot dead.

“It has the highest unemployment in the world. No clean drinking water. Only children who dream of a better future. Children who had dreams and hopes before they died.”

And, just in the last three weeks, Conibear listed the number of Israeli human rights violations that have simply been swept under the carpet: “Number one... 9,000 Palestinian civilians killed, of whom 3,500 were children… entire families wiped out.

“Number two, over 10,000 dead under the rubble, unaccounted for.

“Number three, the bombing of all 105 clinics and 26 hospitals… including the only cancer hospital and children’s hospital.

“Number four, the bombing of schools, with illegal phosphorus gas, where civilians are sheltering.

“Number five, the murder of 46 reporters and their families. To silence the voice of the people reaching the world.

“Number six, cutting off water supplies, which according to UNICEF [now officially named the United Nations Children's Fund] are already unsafe to drink from.

“Number seven, cutting off electric and gas supplies and bombing food supplies and preventing aid getting into Gaza.

“Number eight, bombing civilians as they flee and forcing mass immigration to the Sinai desert.

“Number nine, targeting 27 ambulances with Israeli bombs and killing 150 paramedics.”

There’s no other word for it than genocide… it’s ethnic cleansing and governments around the globe are condoning it. Children shaking from fear of being bombed and having building’s collapse on their heads as a result of the constant airstrikes… this is what the mainstream media does not report.

Sunak’s government may not be dropping the bombs but it just stands aside and argues Israel is simply defending itself. Does this represent your view of the crisis?

“The UK government and its allies stand by Israel when Palestinian mothers write their children’s names on their legs and arms so medical staff can identify their bodies after they are killed,” Conibear said. “How shameful, why do Palestinian lives not matter?

“The people of Palestine have died for justice, for freedom and for their home and land. They have died for what is known as basic rights all over the world. Why do Palestinians have to die for basic human rights? Why do they have to suffer genocide over and over again? What is the exchange rate of Palestinian life, how many babies must we give up? How many children and hostages in Israeli prisons must we give up? How many men and women must we give up to have the right to live on our own land?”

This is a tragedy you will not see covered by the BBC, ITV or any of the world’s mainstream news corporations because all the outlets are controlled by a small number of global media monopolies aligned with the New World Order despots turning the screw on humanity.

On Wednesday the Welsh Senedd will debate the situation in Gaza but they really have no idea what’s happening on the ground and are being pressured from all sides to toe the NWO line. But hopefully compassion will prevail and Wales will add what little weight it has to calls for an end to the genocide in Gaza.

Bethan Sayed, former Senedd member for South Wales West, is calling for everyone to contact their Senedd members to demand a ceasefire now and ask them to support the original motion put forward by Plaid Cymru regarding the situation in Palestine rather than a “watered-down” amendment, which I understand, pushes for an “end to hostilities” rather than a ceasefire.

Will that happen? One can only hope, but please head down to Cardiff Bay for a vigil at midday on Wednesday to show your support for the children of Gaza and let our politicians know we demand the genocide stops now.

Would Israel listen? I really don’t think so and I fear it will go to further extremes to justify its extermination of Palestinians. If another “terrorist” attack should occur later this year I’d put any money on Israel being behind it, whether through its own policy of genocide in Gaza or through some false-flag atrocity it, and its friends in foreign places, can blame on Hamas, which Israel pushed to power in 2006 and keeps in place by refusing to sanction new elections.

It’s a mad, mad situation… but please add your weight to the cries to make it stop!