April 1 brought news of more tragedy from Gaza—what’s new?—after reports broke that seven World Central Kitchen volunteers were killed by Israeli Defense Forces. According to NPR, Israel claimed that this was an accident—that their drones mistakenly struck the trucks, clearly labelled with the WCK logo, repeatedly, obliterating all three cars [1].
In fact, the convoy was traveling a route that the WCK and the Israeli Government had agreed would be for humanitarian needs. The Guardian reported that the convoy of aid trucks had been targeted “systemically, car by car,” according to WCK founder Jose Andres. [2]
This event was an undeniable, tragic loss of human life—just like the over 200 other aid workers and 33,000 Palestinians murdered by the IDF in the past 7 months. [2] Of course, this event garnered more sympathy than the millions of starving, dead and injured Palestinians.
The Biden administration, and Western media overall, has done an impressively quick turnaround in the past couple of weeks; suddenly, aid workers are “killed” instead of “dying in strikes.” As Noor Hassan put it best in her letter to the administration in February, “Brown people’s deaths can only be mourned if a white person dies with them.” [3]
In a statement released April 2, Biden said, “This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult—because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians.” [4]
Naturally, the United States is still committed to supplying billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry to Israel as their bombardment of Gaza continues. Biden refuses to even threaten Israel with withholding the aid, opting instead to give them a stern lecture on the importance of protecting civilians—all the while sending the very bombs used to murder them.
You’d think this would be enough to persuade Biden and other staunch supporters of Israel to support a cease-fire. Nominally, Biden does—however, he doesn’t support a real cease-fire and solution to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Instead, he has urged Hamas to accept a six-week cease-fire, conditional on the return of the 40 Israeli hostages, after which Israel can go right back to its bombs. [5]
The genocide in Gaza has gone on for far too long, yet Western leaders refuse to even consider a long-term cease-fire, and especially not Biden. But why would they when, as Biden himself said in 1986, Israel is “the best $3 billion investment we make?” He even went as far as to say, according to Snopes, “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.” [6]
The Western world’s support for Israel is inexcusable, and it always has been. It’s a tragedy that it took tens of thousands of murdered civilians for America to even begin changing its mind, and yet, there’s still an overwhelming opposition from Democrats and Republicans alike to keep on selling them missiles. If it wasn’t clear before, it is now: President Biden serves the interests of the profiteers, and no one else.
SOURCES:
[1] https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242489621/world-central-kitchen-aid-workers-killed-gaza
[3] https://umassmedia.com/33558/opinions/open-letter-to-administration-on-israel-palestine/
[6] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/joe-biden-1986-israel/