Damascus-SANA
More than seventy years ago, the Israeli occupation continues to perpetuate its brutal practices based on terrorism, murder, settlement, appropriation of Palestinian lands and destruction of their homes with the aim of displacing them and Judaizing them. The Tantura massacre is still dripping with blood in the memory of those who survived who witnessed it.
Day after day, the whole world is exposed to the extent of the horrific crimes of the occupation committed against the Palestinian people through ethnic cleansing and forced displacement and depriving them of their most basic rights stipulated in the principles of human rights and international humanitarian law, foremost of which is their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
And the last thing that surfaced in this regard was the Amnesty International report entitled “The Israeli apartheid regime against the Palestinians” to reaffirm the gravity of the racist crimes committed by the occupation against the Palestinians and crimes against humanity in flagrant violation of human rights, calling on the international community to put an immediate end to them.
The report of the organization accusing the occupation entity of committing apartheid crimes was welcomed by the Palestinians because it has legal value and gives light and authority to consider the crime of apartheid as a crime against humanity. Colonization and other violations against the Palestinian people since the Nakba in 1948.
In this regard, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh considered the report a new victory for the just cause of the Palestinian people and justice for the victims of the Zionist “apartheid” policy, who have been subjected to, and are still, murders, home demolitions and land seizures in service of the occupation’s settlement plans.
Fatah movement, in turn, called on the European Union and the International Criminal Court to respond practically to Amnesty's call to pressure the occupation to stop its crimes against the Palestinians, pointing out that this report was shortly preceded by confessions by a number of the occupation forces that they had committed a racist massacre in cold blood in the village of Tantura, which killed nearly 200 Palestinian martyrs. During the Nakba in 1948.
On the al-Tantora massacre, the enemy media recently revealed testimonies given by members of the Zionist gangs, during which they confessed to their arrogance and the crimes of murder and rape they committed in cold blood against the defenseless residents of the village.
Among the disgusting testimonies made by one of those gang members was that he killed about 20 Palestinians without mercy while raising their hands above their heads, while another said: “I was a killer, I killed even those with their hands raised to the top. A bullet emptied them in their bodies.”
In a hideous embodiment of murder and criminality in its most violent form, which reflects the extent of the brutality of its perpetrator, one of the members of that gang confirmed that they were entering the Palestinians in barrels and shooting at them while they were inside “to enjoy” seeing the blood flowing from the breaches caused by the bullets in the barrels.
Sheikh Mustafa Al-Masry Abu Jamil, 88, a survivor of the brutal massacre, recalls what he went through 74 years ago by saying: “We were 14 people who kept me and my child away from the group for a distance of ten meters and directed their machine guns at others, including my father and brother, and killed them mercilessly and buried them all in a cemetery. collective.”
The Palestinian government, in turn, and after those confessions came out to the public, demanded the formation of an international investigation committee after the Israeli media announced the discovery of mass graves of Palestinians on the Tantora beach who were killed in 1948, with documented testimonies from the people who carried them out.
Despite these continuing crimes against the Palestinians, the international community and its human rights and human rights organizations still turn a blind eye to the crimes of the occupation and remain completely silent about its continuing crimes without accountability.
Fahmy El Shaarawy