Americans marched in support of Palestine in cities across the US over the last weekend. Younger Americans are demanding human rights for Palestinians, and are aware of the Human Rights Watch report of April 27 labeling Israel an Apartheid state. While the older American generations were comfortable with turning a blind eye to the suffering in Palestine, the younger generation who are the leaders of tomorrow are demanding justice.
Multiple Israeli military strikes may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity according to Amnesty International who has asked the International Criminal Court to open an investigation on residential strikes without prior warning.
"Under international humanitarian law, all parties must distinguish between military targets and civilian objects and direct their attacks only at military objectives. When carrying out attacks, parties must take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians," said Saleh Higazi, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
An Israeli airstrike on Saturday destroyed a 12-story building in Gaza which was home to the Associated Press and Al Jazeera new agencies. Israel faced global condemnation and accusation of preventing the freedom of the press. Israeli officials claimed the building housed terrorist assets, but Netanyahu provided no evidence of that, and Blinken also said he had not seen any evidence that Hamas was in the building.
The Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain in 2020. At the time, Israel was at peace under Netanyahu, and his only big problem was avoiding conviction in a corruption trial and possible jail sentence. Recently, the Israeli police, under Netanyahu's direction brutally cracked down on peaceful unarmed protesters in East Jerusalem protesting ethnic cleansing. That escalated into the current conflict with rockets met with airstrikes, and the Israeli citizenry divided.
The Trump administration had encouraged Netanyahu to pursue agreements with Arab countries, instead of solving its domestic conflict with Palestinians. Further agreements with Arab countries now look impossible, and the current conflict has brought a renewed sense of unity among Arabs from Yemen to Morocco.
In a last-ditch effort to cling to power, and fend off the corruption cases against him, Netanyahu sought allies among the Israeli far-right, which is insisting on further land grabs and ethnic cleansing, and that was the spark that ignited the current conflict. In the end, Netanyahu's self-preservation tactic may be the straw that broke the camel's back.
Steven Sahiounie is an award-winning journalist
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