By: Martin Olsen, Syndicated Columnist
The images coming out of Gaza are horrendous. Mothers holding starving babies, children crying out for food, people collapsing in the street from hunger. They are so powerful they have compelled me to, at long last, say Israel has gone a smidge too far and should really stop it.
Through 21 months of “war” against a civilian population, Israel has bombed hospitals, shot aid workers, targeted journalists, burned people alive and levelled almost every single building in Gaza. And while I can now say I was horrified by all of this, I did not devote a single one of my 3 columns a week to covering it.
Instead I focused on important domestic matters, like all of Canada’s national, provincial and municipal elections, the delay in the Eglinton LRT, the royal visit, the debate over whether it’s anti-semitic to wave a Palestinian flag near a hospital that, it turns out, is affiliated with the Jewish community, and of course, the Eras Tour.
But I can be silent no longer. Instead my conscience compels me to speak truth to power and call out Israel’s horrific blockade of Gaza. Enough is enough. This crisis must end now before there are any more innocent deaths of children. Or the adults too I guess.
I take this brave, some may even say heroic, step knowing that I may stand alone in this fight. Well other than the Palestinian journalists. And the student protestors who I condemned but it turns out may have been right all along. And the numerous human rights organizations who were brave enough to call this a genocide when all Israel was doing was blowing up apartment buildings full of civilians.
And sure I have noticed that a number of journalists and centrist politicians have all suddenly come forward at the same time to condemn Israel. But that is a coincidence and certainly not a coordinated effort to avoid being seen as genocide apologists 21 months too late. All of us simply made that choice to stand alone, together.
The point is that I am calling on Israel to end this genocide now. And so when they write the history books about this shameful chapter, I will definitely be remembered as one of the good journalists who spoke out, and not one of the propagandists who carried water for the murderous Netanyahu regime. You hear that history? Remember: me good. It’s the 4-5 journalists still supporting Israel who are the bad guys. Just them.
