Israel’s war against Gaza is now into its second month. Israel has killed more than 13,000 men, women and children with bombs and bullets. We do not know how many others have died from other causes or will die from starvation, disease and other maladies associated with being under siege by the fourth largest military in the world.
However, what we do not know does not reduce what we know. We know Israel is not making war on Hamas. Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
We have been watching explosions from bombs and artillery shells. We have watched wounded people being carried into hospitals. We watched as the hospitals were bombed and shelled. We watched mass murder. Genocide. War crimes. Israeli leaders declared their contempt for Palestinians and called Palestinians “animals” and “insects.”
The mayhem, death and horror Israel has inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is not new.
Every death in this war is another Emmett Till. Elijah McClain. Sandra Bland. George Floyd. Philando Castille. Ahmaud Arberry. Renisha McBride.
Gaza is Elaine. Tulsa. East St. Louis. Rosewood. Omaha. Wounded Knee.
Gaza is Emmett Till’s disfigured corpse multiplied by ten thousand.
Emmett Till didn’t murder himself.
The people killed by Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the West Bank are being massacred.
By Israel.
With weapons, bullets, bombs and other war materiel furnished by the United States.
The United States supplies Israel with that arsenal — which also includes nuclear weapons — so Israel can do whatever it wants. Israel wants to “exterminate” Palestinians.
Israeli Zionist leaders have been trying to exterminate Palestinians for almost a century.
“Think of Mississippi wanting to exterminate every Black child the way Emmett Till was murdered so white Mississippians won’t have to live with Black people.”
Think of Mississippi wanting to exterminate every Black child the way Emmett Till was murdered so white Mississippians won’t have to live with Black people.
Think of the United States wanting to drive every indigenous person off land their people hunted, fished and lived on for generations so white settlers could call it a “homeland.”
Israel is doing that to Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The United States funds and outfits Israel’s government so Israel can do what Israeli settlers always have said they wanted to do to Palestinians and what white colonizers and imperialists have always done to indigenous people across the world.
Dehumanize. Massacre. Demonize. Colonize. Occupy. Rob. Deceive.
And Israel and the United States are repeating what white colonizers and imperialists have always said whenever indigenous people have resisted, rebelled, revolted, objected and complained.
We have the right to do whatever we please. Deny your right and destroy your power to resist.
Tell any lie. Resort to any violence. Disregard any principle. Achieve our goal.
Occupation.
Domination.
Jewish Empire.
We have the right to call the forced expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 “voluntary.”
We have the right to gloss over the death of each Palestinian by Zionist settlers. And call the settlers heroes.
We have the right to build settlements and outposts on Palestinian land, destroy or seize their crops, call the Palestinians trespassers, and attack them as criminals.
We have the right to deny Palestinians an opportunity to be heard, seen and protected.
We have the right to have the world treat our quest for Jewish empire and sense of supremacy as an entitlement, and Palestinian resistance to oppression as a threat to Jews everywhere in the world, even if the world disagrees with us.
“If you challenge Zionism, you are antisemitic because we say so.”
We might wage nuclear war against Palestinians.
Whatever we say is right. Whatever we do is right.
Whatever we want is right.
If we nuke Palestinians, we will be right.
If you challenge Zionism, you are antisemitic because we say so.
Whatever we say is right. Especially when you disagree with us.
Don’t call us white supremacists. We are simply right when we say what we say and do what we do.
Palestinians cannot be right because we say so. Besides, they are not white.
Know what we say. Remember what we told you. Trust us that all will be well.
Talk to our friends in the United States and Britain if you have questions or concerns. Listen to the white evangelical people in the U.S. You know their fine record concerning justice, truth, equality and respect for indigenous people.
Let’s meet in Gaza after we wrap things up there. You’ll be delighted to see what we do with the place once Palestinians are gone.
Wendell Griffen is a retired Arkansas circuit court judge who serves as pastor of New Millennium Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.