Not one Democrat has defended Israel over Gaza massacre
A boy waves a Palestinian flag, among thousands taking part in a Great March of Return rally along Gaza’s boundary with Israel, east of Jabaliya, 30 March. Israeli snipers opened fire on protesters all along the boundary, killing 14 that day and injuring 1,400 others.
APA images
There’s been a lot of online commentary about how so few members of Congress have criticized Israel’s premeditated massacre of civilian demonstrators in the besieged Gaza Strip last Friday.
Just three have done so on Twitter and one did so through an aide.
But here’s another remarkable fact that has not been noted: as far as The Electronic Intifada can determine, not one Democrat in the House or Senate has spoken up – at least on Twitter – to defend Israel’s actions.
This may reflect a recognition among Democratic leaders of how toxic Israel is becoming to a large segment of the party’s base.
In the bloodiest day since Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, Israeli forces killed 18 Palestinians on 30 March, including 14 protesters taking part in Great March of Return rallies near the Gaza-Israel boundary.
About 1,400 more were injured, including 800 by live ammunition. A Human Rights Watch investigationcondemned the killings of protesters as “calculated” and warned Israeli leaders that they could face prosecution in international courts for the illegal attacks on unarmed civilians who posed no danger whatsoever.
Widely circulated videos show Israeli soldiers shooting down unarmed protesters.
With more marches planned by Palestinians in coming weeks, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has published ads in Israeli media urging soldiers to disobey patently illegal orders to shoot at unarmed demonstrators.
We are publishing newspaper ads in Israel captioned “Sorry Commander, I cannot shoot” clarifying to soldiers that they must refuse to open fire on unarmed demonstrators in Gaza. This unusual step is following Friday’s events, when soldiers used live fire & killed 12 Palestinians
Congressional silence
On Monday, Said Arikat, the Washington correspondent of the Palestinian newspaper Alquds, reported that Senator Bernie Sanders was the only one of 535 US lawmakers to criticize Israel’s actions.
But Vermont’s Sanders was then followed by representatives Betty McCollum of Minnesota and Barbara Lee of California.
