“…the little children…”
Normalizing this abominable situation is not acceptable, and before it reaches a point at which our leaders are induced or intimidated by offshore influences to further withdraw our voice from the UN record, even as some major international media no longer consider it newsworthy, it seems right and just that this newspaper should amplify the cry of the United Nations to STOP THE GENOCIDE in Gaza!
The children are our future in Belize; and all around the world, the children are precious, and innocent in their formative years. It is noted that a number of articles in this current issue of the Amandala are focused on the delicate and immensely important topic of youth/children in our society. The hope for the future of any nation, and the world, lies in the potential of our children and youth, who will later form the productive base of society in the productive years of their lives, and then sustain both the elderly and the new crop of children coming into this world. When brave soldiers go to fight and die in wars, it is one thing, a terrible and painful reality; but when supposedly sane adult men can systematically drop bombs that kill mostly children and women (70% of the 50,000 plus killed in Gaza are women and children, according to the U.N.), we cannot stop crying out loud for an end to the madness.
With the vast majority of Belizeans who are professed Christians, and even those of other religious denominations, Muslims, Baha’is, etc. appreciating the message brought to all humanity by the one Jesus Christ, we should be immensely proud of our little nation, Belize, that our government has gone on record, for all posterity to know, that we stood/stand strongly and unequivocally against the so-called “war” being waged by the nation state of Israel against the Palestinian people in the Gaza, who are beset by an illegal occupation. No less than the General Assembly and the Secretary General of the United Nations and its International Court of Justice have condemned the declared genocide that remains ongoing even today, April 7, 2025, in Gaza — a genocide being perpetrated by the government of Israel, despite the stern denouncement and opposition from the majority of its own citizens in Israel and Jews around the world, and a genocide which to this very day continues to be “aided and abetted” by the United States of America, whose policy of “iron clad” support for Israel remains in place under current Republican President Trump, as it had also been under Democratic President Biden.
The great American people are in danger of losing their country, at least what it once was and what it once stood for; and they began losing it under President Biden, who had long sworn by the “iron clad” principle of American support for Israel, no matter what. As US vice president, Biden’s deeply rooted philosophy of bias in favor of Israel and against the Palestinian people, did not achieve traction under President Obama; but once he (Biden) assumed the U.S. presidency, that blind allegiance to Israel and disregard for the plight of Palestinians, despite his repeated word-of-mouth concern for the many civilian casualties, came into full display with the consistent supply of weapons and ammunition and technical/tactical support that enabled the Israeli army’s persistent massacre of thousands of Palestinian civilians in their declared quest of the Hamas terrorists.
Over 50,000 Palestinians have already been reported killed in the persistent Israeli bombing of homes, hospitals, businesses, apartment buildings, universities, schools, water and electricity infrastructure, churches, mosques and gathering places of Palestinian refugees, and many more have been reported missing under the rubble in the aftermath of daily blasts from U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs that have rendered vast swaths of Gaza practically unlivable. And the bombing hasn’t stopped. Whatever “religion” the Zionist leaders are following in Israel, for sure it is completely opposite to the one supposedly preached by the one called Christ, whose clarion cry above all else was “suffer the little children to come unto me”.
The world has always been, and is now even more than at many other times in history, torn by “wars and rumours of wars”. But in all these wars and conflicts, where millions of innocent civilians are continually caught in the middle and suffer massive displacement as refugees and are victims of rape and murder on a large scale, in all these wars and conflicts, the armed combatants are engaged in a relatively competitive struggle for power and control against each other, with the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire being considered as “collateral damage”. But the situation in Gaza is far different.
Because the daily reports of atrocities in Gaza have been so repetitive over the months and weeks and days, people have tended to become numb to the news, while the starvation and death and destruction of human beings continue daily. Our Belize government has already taken a stand, early in this genocide, by severing diplomatic ties with the nation of Israel; and we applaud them. And this is no time for normalizing relations with a nation that continues and persists in even greater force in its disregard for human life and suffering, and for the children, with its daily bombing and murder in Gaza. We must use our platform to shout as loudly as our voices can carry: STOP THE GENOCIDE!
Why is Gaza different from everywhere else? Nowhere else on planet earth are we dealing with an “occupied people” being attacked and murdered daily by their “occupier’s army”. According to thelaw.institute, “the Geneva Conventions demand that the occupying forces take care of the civilian population’s needs,” not starve and bomb them. This is not a “war” of competitive combatants, as are all the other conflicts around the world. Gaza is a case of a totally one-sided massacre; the few guerilla Hamas warriors are absolutely no match or threat, only an occasional nuisance and obstruction to some of the Israeli operations. Israel remains armed and aided with the highest military technology by the greatest superpower on earth, the USA. And the picture of the endless rubble and devastation in Gaza compared to almost untouched Israel, is a clear illustration that Gaza is simply a case of occupier Israel committing genocide of the occupied Palestinian people.
The relative numbers have hardly changed throughout the past 18 months of this continuing massacre and destruction of Palestine; the vast majority of those killed are women and children. Even during the course of the recent “ceasefire”, Israel persisted in regular attacks in selected areas of Gaza, violating the ceasefire over a hundred times, and resulting in hundreds more Palestinians killed. But whatever hopes some may have envisioned with the inauguration of a new US president, those were quickly dashed, as the attacks after the ceasefire officially ended have only intensified, with the greatest number of deaths per week realized since the massacre resumed. The numbers don’t lie, and of the over one thousand Palestinians killed in the first two weeks of resumption of Israeli bombings in Gaza, around 70% were reportedly women and children. For sure, among the other 30% of men, some were elders, some regular male civilians, and a few Hamas warriors. What kind of “war” is that?
During the term of President Biden, and now under President Trump, many, if not most of the American people have not supported, and have demonstrated in various ways against, their government continuing to finance the continuing Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. So far, the American people have not been able to put their leaders in check; apparently many US politicians still fear a political backlash from the powerful Israeli lobby whose massive campaign financing is tied to their maintaining the “iron clad” policy of support for Israel, even with its war-mongering president, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is accused of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” by the International Criminal Court.
In little Belize, our leaders are understandably cautious and inclined to “step softly” amidst the current turmoil in the international arena. But “man shall not live by bread alone”; and while the American people, coming from a history of genocide against the indigenous people and enslaved Africans, are now struggling in their decision to stop the madness that is consuming their great nation, little Belize has a different history. And our Belize government should never fear or underestimate the resolve and dignity of the great Belizean people. Say it loud: STOP THE GENOCIDE NOW!