‘Where is humanity?’ Scottish activists decry Israel’s Gaza ‘genocide,’ ‘war crimes’ in Gaza

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) – Activists from Scotland have condemned Israel’s war on Gaza as “genocide” and “war crimes,” calling out Western nations for their hypocrisy, double standards and reluctance to stop the deadly assault on Palestinians.

What’s happening now in the Gaza Strip is “absolutely genocide,” Muna Ausat, a member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told Anadolu in London.

“I’m using this word as a layperson … but when one country is trying to wipe out the population of another country, to me, that’s genocide. The second thing is the collective punishment. It’s outrageous,” she said.

Dismissing the notion of Hamas “putting people as human shields,” she said: “They’re in their own homes, where are they supposed to go?”

She slammed the “extremist, right-wing, Zionist” Israeli government for its devastating assault on Gaza, which has killed nearly 17,200 Palestinians, wounded more than 46,000 and displaced nearly 2 million people.

Ausat, who is half-German, said her grandparents were in Germany during World War II, while her mother was a teenager at the time.

“I know the Germans are very ashamed of their history, and now Germany is very scared to stand against Israel because of the history,” she said.

“But I know that many Holocaust survivors ... have said all the rhetoric that is being spouted by (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu, by (National Security Minister Itamar) Ben-Gvir, by all these extremist politicians, is the same language that was used at that time by (Adolf) Hitler.”

Ausat clarified she does not believe that “Israelis are Nazis” or that “Israel should be wiped off the map.”

Pointing to history, she emphasized that Palestinians once lived in harmony with Jewish and Christian people.

“It was a harmonious living situation until the British got involved, and now the Americans who are blindly supporting this fascist regime of Netanyahu,” she added.

Ausat fiercely criticized the idea of humanitarian pauses, saying: “What is the point in allowing doctors to come in just to patch people up so that after the pause is over, they can be bombed and injured again? We need to stop the war.”

The Scottish activist said her time in the occupied West Bank earlier this year showed her “what life was like” for Palestinians facing Israeli repression, having been “caught up in the checkpoints, having watched how we had guns pointed at us all the time.”

Criticizing the iron grip that Israel has on all aspects of Palestinians’ life, she added: “Where is humanity there?”

Ausat, who is also a volunteer of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, also urged individuals to play their part by staying away from Israeli products.

- ‘Western leaders have shown they are hypocrites’

Syed Ali Ausat, another member of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, stressed the need to stop Israel’s killing spree and “war crimes” before talking about any lasting peace.

“People are calling Hamas a terrorist organization … The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) are equally terrorists. They are killing, for the past 75 years, innocent children, teenagers, youngsters and destroying families and their homes,” Ali told Anadolu.

He said Western leaders stood against Russia over the Ukraine war but have turned a blind eye to Gaza, showing once again that they are “hypocrites.”

“Why can’t you do it now?” he asked, saying he feels ashamed of calling himself British because of the UK government’s “irresponsible” stance.

On the situation in the occupied West Bank, Ali said Israel’s policies are tantamount to “apartheid,” adding that what it does is exactly what happened in South Africa decades ago.