THE HARROWING images coming out of Gaza have driven many of us to tears. But there is also an outrage one feels when looking at the broken, lifeless bodies of Palestinian men, women, and especially children -  all victims of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza.

The hypocrisy of the west, including New Zealand, is damning. If any other country had been guilty of committing these atrocities, the international community, particularly the self-professed guardians of the rules-based Western order, would have been calling for accountability and punishment. But the same rules apparently do not apply to Israel. It can flout international law and commit war crimes with the blessing of complicit western governments led by the United States.

This week Israel twice bombed the densely-populated Jabalya refugee camp. The United Nations Human Rights Office has said that the attacks on Jabalya, 'could amount to war crimes' given 'the high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction.'

Israel and its supporters continue to claim that it is legitimately engaged in 'self defence' but it is a claim that only be accepted if you are prepared to accept that the deaths of  over 9,000 Palestinians, including over 3,600 children, is just 'collateral damage'. Those of us who have not checked out of the human race prefer to believe that Israel is committing genocide.

Under international law, the crime of genocide is defined by 'the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such,' as noted in the December 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In its murderous attack on Gaza, Israel has loudly proclaimed this intent. Indeed, Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is quite explicit, open, and unashamed. Perpetrators of genocide usually do not express their intentions so clearly. 

Driving Israel's criminal rampage is a Zionist ideology that is committed to unbridled expansionism and the further annexation of Palestinian land.

Zionism has always been a white supremacist, anti-democratic and right-wing ideology which demands an unswerving loyalty. Its authoritarianism has been likened to fascism.

What is missing in the conversation are the voices of Jewish people who are not Zionists. Like Alternative Jewish Voices. It represents a group of Auckland and Wellington Jews opposed to Zionism. On its website AJV explains:

'Some of us are anti-Zionists, others call ourselves post-Zionist or anti-settler colonialism, but we’re all agreed that Israel as it exists today is an apartheid state, systemically oppressing indigenous Palestinians.  It doesn’t represent our Judaism.... We hold a range of the non-Zionist views that are not represented by NZ Jewish institutional voices...We want government, media and our neighbours to hear from a more diverse range of Jewish voices. There are many ways to be a Jew.'

Juliet Moses and David Cumin continue to claim that any criticism of Israel and its military assault on Gaza is 'anti-semitic'. Marilyn Garson, a co-founder of AJV  told Auckland radio station 95b FM last month that the rhetoric coming from Moses  was dangerous and tried to normalise Zionism:

'I am a Jew and certainly not an anti-Semite. I love my religion, and many people oppose the occupation, because it is wrong. Not because the people who are doing it happen to be Jews. Zionism is a manifestation of nationalism. It is the desire for Jews to have a country and an occupation project that has nothing to do with religion.'

New Zealand's Zionists are loyal to the far right government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Its defence minisiter has described Palestinians as 'human animals'. Netanhayau has said that the conflict with Gaza represents a struggle 'between the forces of civilisation … and barbarism.' The behaviour of his government could certainly be described as barbaric.