US 'sanctioned' Israel atrocities in Gaza
Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:22AM GMT
presstv.ir
An anti-war activist in Britain says Israel could not commit the atrocities it is committing against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip without the approval of the United States.
“I think the US has sanctioned what Israel is currently doing in Gaza. I don’t believe that Israel would have embarked on this current assault on Gaza without the sanction of the United States,” said Laura Abraham, co-founder and director of the Peace Cycle, in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday.
Israel has been relentlessly pounding the Gaze Strip for 24 consecutive days now. Nearly 1,370 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks and about 7,700 others have been injured.
“People are very much more aware on this occasion of what’s going on and I think it’s really started to turn the public affection around. The public across the world, particularly in the West and even in America, have actually begun to realize the truth of what’s going on” and are starting to question and condemn “the war crimes” that Israel is committing, Abraham said.
Over recent weeks, people in a number of major US cities – including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington – have held anti-Israel rallies and have condemned US officials’ support for the Tel Aviv regime.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Monday that both Republican and Democratic US lawmakers will “stand with Israel” and that “as long as I'm Speaker of the House, this will be our cause.”
Israel’s brutal atrocities against Palestinians are heavily funded by Washington. Under a current 10-year deal with Israel – signed in 2007 by the previous administration – over $3 billion of American taxpayers’ money is flowing to Israel in military aid every year.
The incumbent Democratic administration is reportedly considering an increase in US military aid to Israel after 2017 when the current deal expires.
US officials – including President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel – have supported Israel’s “right to defend itself.”
“Where is the Palestinians’ right to defend themselves? Well, if Israel has the right to defend itself, why don’t the Palestinian people?” asked Abraham |
