I've already had a couple of mails telling me that Israel was 'merely defending itself from foreign invaders when it shot those people' and therefore, under international law acted lawfully.
Let's look at some of the ways that others dealt with protesters coming together to remember the 'nakba', the 'catastrophe ' that for them saw Israel established with a homeland and others (them) made homeless.
In Cairo the security forces fired warning shots and used tear gas to disperse protestors outside the Israeli embassy.
The Lebanese authorities fired in the air as they sought to disperse the protesters.
The Jordanian police used tear gas to disperse protesters gathering near the Israeli border.
Israel started with tear gas and rubber bullets but, characteristically, allowed itself to be baited and led down its usual excessive path. It was obvious that some of the crowd were being stirred up and the key to the managing the situation is proportionality and containment. The problem comes in that those who seek to arouse and enflame the passions of the protesters find that they no longer need to do so once the first dead person is carried away.
Those who protested might not have carried firearms, but sticks and stones can indeed break bones, and whilst some are claiming that those who died were innocent and unarmed, there is plenty of guilt to go around. Both sides have transgressed and both are guilty, but sadly some are made more guilty than others because of the wounded and the number of dead protesters.
What is assured is that Israel's General Mordecai sees the situation correctly when he says that, "We are seeing here an Iranian provocation, on both the Syrian and the Lebanese frontiers, to try to exploit the Nakba day commemorations,". The problem is that if you knows that you are being provoked, the best response is not to give those provoking the ammunition they seek to escalate the situation. In the current situation, Israel has failed to do that and given the sea change in Egypt's attitudes to israel, the unsettled state of affairs in so many nation, the call of a senior Hamas leader for Islam to rally and unite against the usurper and aggressor, Israel, this could prove very costly on both world and Middle East stages.
The finger pointing will doubtless continue. Israel will continue to claim it used sensitive, minimal force and Hamas and pro-Palestinians will claim the people were unarmed and merely protesting. Neither are telling the truth. Neither have any integrity. One side has the dead to make them look, once again, excessive and wrong - which, as I read and watch, they are!
Pax
ps. No SC, I'm not pro-Palestinian, or anti-Israel, I'm for justice, mercy, humility, balance and a peaceful response and solution.
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