Al-Taba’een school massacre part of Zionist script
By Iqbal Jassat
Executive member of Media Review Network
As the world awoke early Saturday morning to the devastating news that yet again a school — designated as a “safe shelter” for Palestinian civilians — had been bombed by the Israeli military, anger coupled with grief and sorrow began to dominate news coverage.
Al-Tab’aeen school in Gaza City, where more than a thousand Palestinians had sought refuge from Israel’s barbaric onslaught now entering the 11th month of relentless savagery, bears witness to the inhumanity of Zionist terrorism.
The building, which also has a mosque, was struck at dawn while many people were engaged in Fajr (dawn) prayers. Estimates of casualties point to more than a hundred martyred and many more severely injured.
That the majority of people killed are women, children, and the elderly, exposes the lie of Netanyahu, whose occupation thugs justified the massacre on the grounds that the school was a Hamas and Islamic Jihad “military facility”.
To their credit, both BBC and CNN were careful to report that the IDF had failed to provide proof of their fake allegation. It speaks volumes for media platforms, perceived to be biased against Palestinians, that are supposed to question and interrogate the integrity of the Netanyahu regime.
Most media platforms that are denied access to Gaza by the IDF have relied on footage taken by relief aid workers, showing gruesome pics of wounded children as well as scenes of the bloody carnage.
Journalists at Al Jazeera described the aftermath of the massacre and provided accounts by witnesses who spoke about the tragic task of collecting body parts of victims in pieces.
UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) Francesca Albanese reminded the world that Gaza is the largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st century.
“Israel is genociding the Palestinians one neighborhood at the time, one hospital at the time, one school at the time, one refugee camp at the time, one ‘safe zone’ at the time. With US and European weapons. And amid the indifference of all ‘civilised nations’”, she tweeted.
EU Chief Josep Borell said he is horrified by images from a sheltering school in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike. “At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres”.
Indeed, there cannot be any justification for the uncivilized gruesome savagery inflicted upon Gaza’s innocent population.
If Gaza is a tragedy, it is also America’s tragedy. The war of annihilation conducted by the apartheid colonial regime is possible only with the military, political, and financial support of the United States.
So, notwithstanding the fake propaganda emanating from the corridors of power at the White House, none can deny US complicity in the targeted killings of Palestinian mothers and infants at tent encampments, schools, mosques, and hospitals.
For Israel, the aid and backing provided by the US are indispensable. In other words, without American support, not only will the Zionist project grind to a standstill, but the entire edifice built on usurped Palestinian land will collapse like a house of cards.
October 7 opened the eyes of the world to the fact that Palestinians have lived under Israeli military occupation and apartheid for decades. And that the US has given and continues to give Israel tens of billions of dollars in military funding.
America’s disconnect from the imperatives prescribed by international law is clearly evident in its unconditional support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Many commentators have thus concluded that instead of unwavering adherence to international law, the United States remains in defiance of it.
The current massacre at Al-Tab’aeen, turning Gaza cities into rubble, and starving men, women, and children is a Zionist playbook entirely in sync with the Biden Administration’s policy.
“The US & allies are claiming a cease-fire is near. But all Palestinians see is more death, dislocation, & despair. The genocide continues,” James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, wrote on social media.
“It is past time to end the charade. Israel doesn’t want peace or a cease-fire. Why are we still sending Israel weapons?”
On Saturday morning, CNN journalist Allegra Goodwin said in a post on X that the US news network had confirmed a “US-made GBU-39 small diameter bomb” was used in the deadly Israeli attack on Al-Tab’aeen school.
The attack comes as US President Joe Biden has faced months of public pressure to cut off the supply of weapons to Israel amid its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 39,700 Palestinians since early October.
In contrast to the outrage against Israel’s ongoing genocide, it is vile that the US has announced an additional $3.5b to Israel to spend on US-made weapons and military equipment.
The massacre at Al-Tab’aeen school may have jolted the world and ensured that more and more people see through the lies put out by the war criminals led by Netanyahu, but the widespread military abuses leading to death and destruction continue unabated.
The article first appeared on The Palestine Chronicle.