Where are innocent Palestinians supposed to go in the face of increased violence? - Andy Brown

No one should attempt to justify murder by defining an entire race as being guilty of crimes committed by individuals. Genocide begins the second someone denies the humanity of a whole community.

That is why what has happened since October 7 is so very wrong. Entire cities have been flattened whilst media experts have appeared on television and told us that what was happening was a carefully targeted operation aimed solely at destroying terrorists. Anyone with eyes to see the images on their TV screens should have noticed that Gaza city has been systematically flattened and millions of people have been forced to flee for their lives. The vast majority of them had committed no crime other than to be a Palestinian.

As soon as that destruction had been completed the attention shifted to Khan Younis. A fresh set of innocents died. A new city was made uninhabitable. More hospitals were destroyed. Those who survived struggled to flee towards the beaches and towards Rafah.

Along the way those carefully managed troops operating with such disciplined consideration shot dead three Israeli hostages who were trying to escape from captivity. They were calling out loudly for help in Hebrew. One of those hostages didn’t die straight away. The Israeli Defence Force finished off an injured and harmless Israeli citizen who was calling for them to help him.

If that is the level of care that was being taken, then there have to be serious concerns over how many of the young Palestinians who have been found shot dead with their hands tied behind their backs were actually guilty of crimes justifying mass execution.

There is no shortage of other evidence of a criminal disregard for the sanctity of what seems to be regarded as the wrong kind of life.

We have been told that the bombing of an aid truck that killed British citizens trying to feed starving people was an unfortunate mistake. After the first truck was blown up the volunteers ran to a second. That was then also destroyed. A few terrified survivors ran to the third and final truck before that too was carefully targeted.

If that is what happens to an aid convoy where clear information about truck movements has been provided and acknowledged, then any reasonable person must fear for the lives of a Palestinian family that dares to load up their car and try to flee to safety.

Almost all of the survivors who have made it out of their carpet shelled cities with a few miserable possessions have ended up close to Rafah. Now that place has been selected for destruction, where is anyone innocent expected to go? The South African government has made a case to the International Court that what is happening amounts to genocide. Unless someone can explain where an ordinary Palestinian citizen with no interest in politics can live their family life in peace and security it is hard to disagree that this is what is taking place.

Those of us who believe that Israeli people have the right to live in peace and freedom secure in their lives and property need to know when the same right will be handed to the people of Palestine.

It is wrong in the extreme to talk of Israel committing crimes against humanity. It is the Israeli government that is responsible and its Prime Minister has much to answer for. Benjamin Netanyahu chose to bring extreme nationalists into his cabinet who had convictions for inciting racist hatred from an Israeli court. He tried to remove much of the independence of those courts against fierce resistance from many Israeli citizens. His administration has chosen to reject potential peace deals that would have seen the return of Israeli hostages and decided instead to try and wipe out Hamas militants in the last part of the Gaza strip still partially standing.

It is most unlikely that any attack on Gaza will destroy Hamas. It is very likely that the children of the killed parents and the brothers of the murdered children will become easy recruits for the next generation of terrorism. The only way Netanyahu can destroy the last Hamas militant is by destroying the last Palestinian citizen.

Are we, as a nation, prepared to stand idly by whilst his government punishes an entire people? Or will we stop supplying arms for this form of terrorism as comprehensively as we would refuse to supply arms for any other? We must not be complicit in a massacre.

Andy Brown is the Green Party councillor for Aire Valley in North Yorkshire.