BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
ISRAEL’S policy is to occupy more and more of Palestine land with illegal settlements, even killing and driving away the original owners and making their stolen lands their own. The same goes on in East Jerusalem. There is little or no justice for the Palestinians.
There is hardly a squeak of protest from Western politicians and leaders other than vocal Irish campaigners and politicians that denounce the destruction that Israel does in the name of self-defense.
While Israel has a right to self defense against terrorist attacks, what they are doing has reached a state of mass killing, called “genocide” by the International Court of Justice last January 2024.
Genocide is the gross violation of human rights and is immoral, criminal, illegal, wrong and unjust. It is the total destruction of the Palestinian homes and is a war by starvation driven by greed.
The military assaults fueled by revenge in retaliation for the biggest defeat suffered by the Israel army ever by Hamas are indefensibly funded by Netanyahu himself as explained above, thanks to the BBC Panorama investigative report.
There is a grim and deadly impunity for all this granted to Israel by the western world. No demand for a ceasefire by them other than a weak whimpering cry for restraint. Millions of people around the world are calling for an immediate ceasefire but they are ignored while Israel continues bombing.
One compelling explanation of the massive western support for Israel to continue to occupy Palestine and even take total control of the lands and sea is of course the massive deposits of oil and gas that lie beneath Palestine land and waters off the coast of Gaza. A UN Trade Development Report says “geologists and resources economists have confirmed that the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip.”
The new discoveries of oil and natural gas in the Levant Basin, amount to 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas at a net value of $453 billion (in 2017 prices) and 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil at a net value of about $71 billion. This offers an opportunity to distribute and share about US$524 billion among the different parties in the region and promote peace and cooperation among old belligerents, the study notes.
Israel is presently tapping into those resources with a huge oil rig in the Mediterranean. These resources are partially owned by the Palestinians and denied to them.
The Palestinians have no share so long as they are divided and not recognized as a sovereign state. Is that what is behind the veto by the United States? If there was an independent Palestine state, it would have total control over its own natural resources and reap the benefits for the well-being and recovery of its own people. (preda.org)/PN
