There is an “ugly truth that does not get published in the Western media. Over the last 13 years, on average, one Palestinian child has been killed by Israel every three days. Since the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000, 1,523 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli occupation forces. Over the same time period, 129 Israeli children have been killed.” – International League of Peoples’ Struggle
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounced the Israeli government last weekend for its air strikes that have killed at least 91 Palestinians and wounded close to 650 people, mostly civilians. Since Tuesday last week, Israel has launched more than 300 air strikes aimed at Gaza City.
In another statement, another group, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), condemned the “latest atrocities by Israel against the Palestinian people,” and expressed unqualified support to the right of the Palestinian people to free themselves from decades-long Zionist occupation of their lands.
Among the dead due to Israeli air strikes are 22 children, including an 18-month old baby, and an 80-year old woman. Israeli troops are launching missiles against densely populated Gaza City. So far, Israeli missiles have destroyed houses, mosques, hospitals, schools, the fuel and water systems and other civilian structures including a refugee center.
Reports showed that Palestinian forces have launched largely ineffectual counter-attacks against Israel, causing minimal damage and zero deaths, according to reports.
Israeli forces are enjoying heavy US military support. Data showed that Israel has been the biggest recipient of US military aid for more than 50 years now. Last year, for example, the US reportedly provided Israel with $3.1 billion in military aid.
Just the latest, and biggest, in a series of attacks
Gaza City was occupied by Israel from 1967 until 1993, when the Palestinians managed to recover their city. Since then, Israel has reportedly maintained an economic blockade against the people of Gaza City. In 2008, Israel tried to reconquer Gaza by ground invasion. Four years later, in October 2012, Israeli forces launched another bombing campaign similar to what they are doing today, and they also deployed 30,000 troops along the Gaza border at the time.
According to the ILPS, the last time the Zionists bombed and invaded Gaza in 2008, it killed at least 1,100 Palestinians and boasted that Palestinians could inflict on them a death casualty of only 13.
Right now, the Israeli forces are “gleefully proclaiming that their Iron Dome anti-missile system has prevented the rockets fired by the Palestinians from killing a single Israeli. But even then, they are hell-bent on destroying Palestinian lives and properties on a massive scale,” the ILPS noted in their statement.
Similar to Israeli forces’ last recorded attempt at reoccupying Gaza, the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also recently called for the mobilization of 40,000 reservists threatening to reinvade Gaza.
Denouncing this planned invasion of Gaza, the CPP aired calls for an immediate cessation of air strikes and a stop to what they describe as systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure and populated communities in Gaza.
US-backed Isareli’s crimes vs Palestine
According to the ILPS, the Israeli Zionists’ long-standing crime against the Palestinians include its violent seizure and occupation of most of Palestine, forcing the Palestinians to be crammed in small enclaves, like the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which subsequently render them vulnerable and often subjected to gross human rights violations.
In the Gaza Strip, 1.5 million Palestinians are packed into a small piece of 350 square kilometers, the ILPS said. The group noted that Israel’s “obvious strategy” is to render impossible the Palestinian state by shrinking its territories with the use of the apartheid wall, Israeli settlements and violent attacks, cutting them off from the sea and forcing the population to leave.
In recent bombing raids on Gaza, the Israeli’s “pretext” is the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in a settlement built on what ILPS calls as “stolen Palestinian lands.” Without any proofs, Netanyahu immediately put the blame on Hamas and promised to exact revenge, the ILPS said.
Hamas has denied any involvement in the deaths of the Israeli settlers. Netanyahu has ignored even the UN call for him to present evidence.
The Communist Party of the Philippines expresses support for the Palestinian people’s “firm and collective stand to resist any plans by the Israeli government to invade, occupy and impose its rule on Gaza City.” At the same time, it also expressed support to Israeli people opposing the Netanyahu regime’s policy of driving away the Palestinian people from their homeland.
Saying no to Western govt & media hypocrisy
ILPS also scored the “boundless hypocrisy” of Western politicians and the one-sidedness in favor of the Israeli by the Western media. Following the first reports about the killings of the three teenagers, US President Barack Obama denounced their death as a “senseless act of terror against innocent youth” (one of the three was a soldier in the Israeli army).
British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “This was an appalling and inexcusable act of terror perpetrated against young teenagers. Britain will stand with Israel as it seeks to bring to justice those responsible.”
Neither of the two western leaders has been heard condemning the killing of a Palestinian teenager or child in similar vehement manner, the ILPS noted. The group also said that while big corporate media outlets such as the BBC have devoted headlines and reportage to the deaths of the three Israeli settlers, even providing heart-rending interviews with mourning relatives for example, these media groups never gave similar treatment to Palestinian victims of Israeli terror.
There was complete silence from Western politicians when two young Palestinians aged 16 and 17 were shot dead by Israeli security forces in May, the ILPS said. It added that even if the BBC made a brief mention of the killings, it quickly followed with the viewpoint of the Israeli military.
ILPS said there is an “ugly truth that does not get published in the Western media. Over the last 13 years, on average, one Palestinian child has been killed by Israel every three days. Since the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000, 1,523 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli occupation forces. Over the same time period, 129 Israeli children have been killed. Thus, the ratio of Palestinian children to Israeli children killed is more than ten to one.”
The ILPS calls on all its global region committees, national chapters, member organizations, allied forces, and everyone who desire justice and peace in various countries to protest the latest attacks and long-standing wrongs committed by the Zionist Israeli regime against the Palestinian people, and the contemptible support being given to it by Western governments.
Big mainstream media reports are now follow the US government’s offer to broker negotiations between the two conflicting parties. But according to the CPP, the offer is actually a display of US imperialist hypocrisy, as in the first place, it said the US is the one culpable for the colonization and war crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. 
