No hostages will come home alive from Gaza because of Netanyahu's war on Hamas, says Baskin
Speaking to AsiaNews, the activist attacks the prime minister who "wants to continue the war" to "survive politically,” aided by a weak and fragmented opposition and widespread "weariness and despair" in Israeli society. Israel’s latest attacks in Gaza sow more death and destruction. Only un "unpredictable" Trump can push for an agreement but his focus is on the Houthis in Yemen. Some 55 NGOs sign an appeal against the law that would block their activities.
Milan (AsiaNews) – “Netanyahu wants to continue the war, just so he can survive politically: that's the whole issue,” said Gershon Baskin, an Israeli political activist and one of the leading experts on the Gaza conflict, speaking to AsiaNews about the latest developments in Gaza, where the Israel is expected to launch another offensive soon, which was recently approved by the government of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.
In Israel itself, a sense of "weariness and despair" is spreading in society, which "does not really realise what is happening" in the Palestinian territory. Israelis “simply do not know,” he stressed; “they only and desperately want for the hostages to be brought home.”
For the founder of the Israel-Palestine Creative Regional Initiative (IPCRI) and former columnist for the Jerusalem Post, this demand runs up against the decisions of the prime minister and the cabinet led by religious radicals and the extreme right “that has no intention of making a deal with Hamas to bring the prisoners home."
Israelis, he explains, "get frustrated and don't know what to do.” At the political level "there is a lack of a strong opposition, because the camp it is fragmented and unable to remain united, as well as lacking a real leader. It is a minority in the Knesset and is up against with a solid majority that wants to stay in power. This is why,” he warns, “Israeli society is powerless, broken, tired, desperate".
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks in the Strip go on non-stop. Today a series of air strikes hit a school in northern Gaza that housed displaced people, killing at least 13 Palestinians, while security forces on the ground continue to demolish houses and buildings in Rafah, in the south.
Medical sources report that the Karama school in Tuffah, a suburb of Gaza City, was targeted. A local journalist was among the dead.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved an "expansion" of the offensive against Hamas in Gaza, recalling tens of thousands to reservists for ground operations.
Israel revived the military option in March, after the collapse of the fragile ceasefire brokered by the United States and lasted two months.
Commenting on the operation, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Gaza will be “entirely destroyed” and its inhabitants “concentrated” in the south, from where they would “start to leave in great numbers to third countries”.
The offensive is expected to start after US President Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East, expected next week in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
In the face of the escalation, Hamas confirms that it is no longer interested in further talks on a new ceasefire and the hostage release agreement.
“The hostages are likely to die,” says Baskin, who brokered a deal with Hamas in 2011 for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in 2006 and held for a few years in the Gaza Strip.
"There is no possibility,” he adds, “that a single hostage still alive can return home at the end of this war. The only way is through an agreement with Hamas, and for there to be an agreement, the only way is to end the war in Gaza. There are no other possible agreements.”
Netanyahu is "a liar" and "lies when he says he wants to bring the hostages home," and US President Trump "is the only person who can end the war and get a deal signed, but he is unpredictable,” notes the Israeli activist.
“Now his attention is turned to Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and he is no longer focused on Israel and Palestine. He wants a deal with the Houthis in Yemen.”
Fears and concerns for the very future of the country are also evident in an appeal signed recently by 55 non-governmental organisations operating in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza against a bill in the Knesset seen as a "deadly attack" on society itself.
The law before the Knesset imposes new registration rules, and seeks to impose an “outrageous” tax on donations from foreign governments, effectively blocking their activity as well as eroding the right to file lawsuits in Israeli courts.
For their part, the NGOs call for “urgent action” by the international community to block the law. The new rules, in fact, are based on “vague, broad, politicised open-ended criteria" with the sole aim of “assert[ing] control over independent humanitarian, development and peace-building operations”.
“These new rules are part of a broader, long-term crackdown on humanitarian and civic space, marked by heightened surveillance and attacks”, compounded by “a series of actions that restrict humanitarian access, compromise staff safety, and undermine core principles of humanitarian action.”
These actions “are not isolated but part of a wider pattern that includes: Blocking or delaying aid,” denying “essential lifesaving supplies to Palestinians,” killing humanitarian workers in Gaza, attacks on facilities and limiting the "operation of UNRWA", the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East.
The 55 NGOs that signed the appeal include ActionAid, Cesvi, Christian Aid, Humanity First UK, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC), Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam, Pax Christi International, and Terre des Hommes (TdH) Italia.
Finally, the appeal demands the use of “all possible means to protect humanitarian operations, [. . .] concrete political and diplomatic action” to “Support INGOs and Palestinian and Israeli civil society organisations”.
“These measures not only undermine assistance in the oPt (occupied Palestinian territory) but also set a dangerous precedent for humanitarian operations globally.”
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04/07/2023 20:22
15/03/2024 18:50
