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America, Britain, and the world need to realise that all lives matter, including Palestinian

The Israeli airstrikes that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) sparked global outrage, ironically among allies of Israel who are complicit in the conflict against the Palestinian people.

This condemnation and anger was basically because of the seven who died, three were British nationals, one was an Australian, a Pole, and an American-Canadian. The seventh person was the Palestinian driver. It is ironic that those who died were from nations that had, or continued to supply arms to Israel.

The Guardian, on April 9, reported that the United States was the biggest supplier of Israel’s foreign-sourced weapons, with the others being Britain and Australia. However, Australian foreign affairs minister Penny Wong stressed that her country has not supplied weapons to Israel since the beginning of the Gaza conflict. Canada, meanwhile, announced it had stopped sending weapons to Israel.

One cannot ignore the monstrous hypocrisy of these countries, when they did not even raise a whiff of protest or condemnation, except for some meaningless rhetoric when Israel massacred over 33,000 innocent Palestinian men, women, babies, and children.

This clearly shows the racist attitude of these countries, as they seem to believe that only white lives matter, while Palestinian, blacks, and Asian lives, do not.

The life of the sole Palestinian among the seven killed, 25-year-old Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, seems inconsequential to the leaders of these nations. It has been open season for the slaughter of Palestinians. As far as the Western leaders are concerned, only the six white lives mattered. This is the hyperbole hypocrisy of the Western world. American President Joe Biden expressed “angst” over the incident.

Biden’s comments over the deaths of the six whites in Gaza came 33,000 Palestinian deaths too late. He expressed outrage and heartbreak, and ‘chastised’ Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that such incidents should not have happened, and that Israel has not done enough to protect civilians – not the Palestinians – but the six aid workers.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the strike, while British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a staunch and die-hard supporter of
Israel’s, said he was “appalled” by the killings, and expressed his condemnation and consternation to the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Sunak now sings a tune of outrage when he is, in fact, part of the group supporting Israel and its actions against the Palestinian people. Jumping onto the bandwagon, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed similar indignation at the killing of an Australian citizen and aid worker.

Following the outrage from his allies, Netanyahu expressed regret over the deaths of the aid workers. Where was the remorse or regret when babies, children, and innocent civilians were murdered in Gaza?

Leaders from the US, the UK, and other like-minded nations, must be bold enough to demand Israel stop these attacks.

The deaths of six white aid workers caused leaders of these nations to be outraged, as if humanity itself was being slaughtered to extinction. Sadly, this is the epitome of the West’s hypocrisy, where it seems that only white lives matter. The rest, be dammed.

The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.