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Horrific. Unjustified. Morally Wrong. But ‘UNPROVOKED?

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By Common Dreams Staff

Horrific. Unjustified. Morally wrong. But ‘unprovoked’?

After the Palestinian group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years – with many killed, hostages taken, and fighting raging – many US elected officials released statements Saturday condemning the “unprovoked” attacks.

But many others took to Twitter Saturday to ask incredulously how Israel’s continued brutal occupation of the Palestinian people cannot be considered a provocation.

  • 75 years of ethnic cleansing
  • 15 years of blockade
  • Confiscation of Palestinian lands
  • Pogroms on Palestinian towns
  • Desecration of Palestinian sacred sites
  • Daily raids into Palestinian homes
  • Constant humiliation of a entire people

Nothing about today is “unprovoked”.

Picture: Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP / Taken on JULY 4, 2023 – People flee falling tear gas canisters during an ongoing Israeli military operation in Jenin city in the occupied West Bank on July 4, 2023. Israel’s biggest military operation for years in the occupied West Bank has continued, leaving many Palestinians dead and forcing thousands to flee their homes as the government then said it struck ‘with great strength’ the militant stronghold.

Writer Caitlin Johnstone tweeted: “It’s clear now that whenever the western political/media class starts bleating the word ‘unprovoked’ in unison, you know with absolute certainty that whatever they’re talking about was massively provoked.“

AFP Picture: May 13, 2021

Picture: Mahmud Hams / AFP / Taken on May 13, 2021 Palestinian Muslim men perform the morning Eid Al-Fitr prayer outdoors amid the destruction on the first day of the Muslim holiday which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, following two days of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, on May 13, 2021 in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. – Israel’s air force said it had launched multiple strikes overnight, targeting what it described as locations of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. Meanwhile, incoming passenger planes scheduled to land at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv were being diverted on May 13 to a southern airport amid rocket fire from Gaza, the airports authority said.

And here is a sampling of statements released Saturday by US elected officials and politicians calling the attacks “unprovoked”.

AFP Picture: November 27, 2015

Picture: Mohammed Abed / AFP / Taken on on November 27, 2015 – A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to throw stones at Israeli security forces during clashes along the border with Israel on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City on November 27, 2015.