PV staff
As Israel continues its genocidal siege of Gaza and prepares for a new offensive against Rafah, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is calling for action by the UN and international community to prevent a new Nakba.
After four months of Israeli attacks and forced evacuations to “safe areas” in south Gaza, 1.5 million Palestinians are now crammed into Rafah, whose population prior to the siege was around 175,000.
Now, Israel is continuing its massacre of Palestinians by relentlessly bombing Rafah and preparing for a new ground offensive. “These inhumane actions are contributing to the worsening of the conditions experienced by the Palestinians and are preventing access to the humanitarian aid necessary for survival,” warned the WFTU in a statement on February 13. “The suffering Palestinian people are subjected – once again – to unprecedented brutality with mass murder of civilians, uprooting from their land and ethnic cleansing.”
The labour body, which represents over 105 million workers in countries around the world, says that Israel has no intention of respecting international law, so the United Nations and international must take urgent action to prevent a new Nakba (“Catastrophe”), referring to the violent mass displacement of Palestinian people from their land in 1948.
While calling for international action, the WFTU also denounced Western governments like Canada’s, whose policies have facilitated Israel’s murderous actions. “We condemn the hypocrisy of the US and its allies, who pretend to be the protectors of the international law and order, but they silently or openly support this genocide.”
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has responded to Israel’s preparations for a ground assault in Rafah, by calling for a “sustainable” ceasefire and a hostage exchange. Joly’s statement continues the Canadian government’s qualification that a ceasefire must be “sustainable,” as a way to place equal responsibility on Hamas and Israel and minimize the latter’s genocidal actions.
When the International Court of Justice determined over two weeks ago that Israel was committing a “plausible genocide” in its siege of Gaza, it outlined a series of immediate measures which Israel needed to implement. Israel has ignored the court’s ruling, and the Canadian government continues to shirk its responsibility, as a signatory to the 1948 Genocide Convention, to take action to implement the ICJ measures and prevent genocide.
[Photo of Rafah bombardment: WAFA]
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