Israeli protesters have tried to block border crossings, or even attacked aid convoys bound for Gaza.
Months after some Israelis started to protest against aid lorries entering Gaza at the main Kerem Shalom crossing, the battle has moved to other key junctions, where rival groups of activists do their best to block or protect aid convoys.
Right-wing activists, including Jewish settlers living in the occupied West Bank, have uploaded dozens of videos of crowds, including some very young children, hurling food onto the ground and stamping on boxes of aid.
In one video, a group of jubilant protesters dance and celebrate on top of a looted lorry.
In another, one of the stranded lorries is ablaze.
In the West Bank, at least two drivers who were not carrying goods bound for Gaza were dragged from their cabs and beaten.
Other videos show Israeli vigilantes stopping lorries in Jerusalem and demanding that drivers show papers proving they are not transporting aid to Gaza. Their faces are uncovered and they appear to be acting with complete impunity.
This is a direct result of a fascist (Ben Gvir) being the minister of "national security". This guy wasn't allowed to serve in the IDF due to his involvment with groups designated by the Israeli government as terrorists.
Bibi literally allied with fucking terrorists to stay in power.
Ben Gvir was known to have a portrait in his living room of Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish extremist and Israeli-American mass murderer who massacred 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounded 125 others in the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron.
In December 2021, Ben-Gvir was investigated after a video surfaced of him pulling a handgun on Arab security guards during a parking dispute in the underground garage of the Expo Tel Aviv conference center. The guards asked Ben-Gvir to move his vehicle as he was parked in a prohibited space. He then drew a pistol and brandished it at the guards.
In early October 2023, following the arrest of 5 ultra-Orthodox Heredi Jews for spitting at Christians and outside churches, Ben-Gvir said it was "not a criminal case" following arrests.[60] Prior to entering politics, he defended Jews spitting at Christians as "an ancient Jewish custom".
“My right, my wife's, my children's, to roam the roads of Judea and Samaria are more important than the right of movement of the Arabs," said Mr Ben Gvir, using a biblical term for the West Bank.
He then addressed Mohammad Magadli, an Arab Israeli journalist in the studio, saying: "Sorry Mohammad, but this is the reality, that's the truth. My right for life comes before their right to movement."
BBC. He has a number of repugnant views. There won’t be peace until BB’s cabinet is out of power.
It's despicable behavior like this that makes it really hard to convince people that it's only their fascist government that's atrocious and should be sanctioned.
They're really not making a good case for not being treated exactly like Apartheid South Africa and Putin's Russia..
The only reason, and sadly the reason why they will get away with this for some more time for sure, is that the U.S. has pledged unconditional support. The whole west has to now tip toe around the fact that they very much watch a nation commit genocide without sanctioning the shit out of them. Germany has it easy cause we can always say "as former nazis we can not do anything but crawl up isreals butt".
Please don't lump all Israelis together with a small group of extremists which are currently supported by our fascistic government.
I'm not. I'm saying that these extremists make the others look bad to the point that it's difficult for non-absolutists such as myself to argue against collective punishment. Apologies if I was unclear.
This is no different to saying all Palestinians are bad and should be sanctioned because of Hamas.
Yeah it is. Whereas Palestinians are resisting (sometimes in less than optimal ways) a genocidal occupation force, these Israelis are safe and still trying to help that same force starve innocent civilians to death. That's VERY different.
Forgive but where are the Israelis protesting the genocide? I only see them supporting the IDF and screaming anti-semites at people that disagree with them.
Oh you wait. People will say Hamas made them do it. Every time Israel has done anything people are even remotely able to call wrong in this war, someone pipes up and says that Israel has to do it because Hamas has forced their hand. Anything from killing children to torturing prisoners. It's all Hamas' fault every time to those people.
This is Hamas fault. Hamas eat food so we should kill food to stop it from aiding Hamas.
And if regular citizens also starve and want to eat food, then that makes them Hamas terroritzes by association just like how the IDF AI chooses targets.
And omg if the food was Hummas by any chance, then the most moral army in the world should drop 20000lbs bombs on it even if 99% killed were colateral victims because look what Hamas made us do
The only way we’ll get our hostages back.”Many argue that Gazans should receive nothing while Israeli hostages remain in captivity, and that providing aid to Gaza merely serves to prolong the war.In one video, a group of jubilant protesters dance and celebrate on top of a looted lorry.In another, one of the stranded lorries is ablaze.Other videos show Israeli vigilantes stopping lorries in Jerusalem and demanding that drivers show papers proving they are not transporting aid to Gaza.
Other targeted drivers are involved in transporting aid from Jordan, which has to cross the West Bank and Israel before it reaches Gaza.“We’re now taking side roads, far from the main routes, because we fear the aggressiveness of the settlers,” he said.
But after a series of well-documented attacks, some Israelis are fighting back.Peace activists have taken to tracking their opponents’ movements on social media and making sure they’re present at key crossing points.At Tarqumiya checkpoint, where lorries enter Israel from the southern West Bank, members of the group Standing Together are now mounting regular vigils.Tarqumiya was the scene of one of the most dramatic recent attacks.“People in Gaza are starving and aid should get to Gaza,” said Suf Patishi, one of Standing Together’s founding members.“Israeli society should say in a loud and clear voice that we are opposed to these acts,” he said of the recent attacks on convoys.“It’s not a lot to ask, not to die from hunger, you know.”
To help these people that are starving.”As the peace activists sheltered from the fierce sun under palm trees at the centre of a roundabout, passing lorry drivers waved and sounded their horns in gratitude.A small group of right-wing demonstrators arrived but were heavily outnumbered by Mr Patishi’s volunteers.The two sides debated their differing positions in discussions that became increasingly heated.Police officers stood nearby, ready to keep the opposing camps apart if it came to blows.The peace activists have accused the police, under the control of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the most hardline members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, of doing little to stop the attacks.They say there’s evidence that settlers are receiving help from the authorities and point to text messages in which groups organising attacks on aid lorries solicit and receive help from the police and army.
“A lot of times the police were in the areas when attacks occur, but they didn't have someone to push them to act,” Mr Patishi said.“And it's very sad because the police should keep the law.”As lorries drove by, two young women waved an Israeli flag but stopped short of trying to stop the traffic.The two, who asked to be identified as Ariel and Shira (not their real names), explained why they felt it was important to be there.“We would prefer that we don’t have to do the blockages, honestly,” Ariel said.
"Both women recognised that there might be starvation in Gaza, but were convinced that Hamas was stealing and stockpiling aid rather than distributing it to people in need.And they were not worried about what sort of image of Israel was being projected by the scenes of aid lorries being stopped, ransacked and set on fire.“It’s time to stop caring what everybody else thinks,” Shira said, “and do what’s necessary to protect my life, to protect my family.”As for the police, Ariel was dismissive.“They aren’t going to interfere if they aren’t certain they’re able to shut it down,” she said.
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