US author Max Blumenthal's book, 'The 51 Day War: Reistance and Ruin in Gaza', is a chronicle of the human spirit unbowed in the face of brute oppression.
Having spent a lot of time in Gaza, and having forged lasting friendships with many people there, there is no one who is more qualified to unpack the significance of this latest atrocity, involving 18 unarmed Palestinian demonstrators being shot dead by Israeli army snipers, with over 700 wounded, in a part of the world that can rightly be described as the largest open prison on the planet.
No longer can a world which purports to believe in justice and universal human rights look the other way when it comes to the suffering of the Palestinian people. And no more can Western governments continue to acquiesce in the brutality meted out to the Palestinians by the State of Israel.
Just as there can be no opt-out when it comes to international law, justice does not exist anywhere while injustice continues to be the lived experience of 4.5 million men, women and children in Palestine.
Israel's existence is not the issue. Israel's existence as an apartheid state is.
Join John and Max as they discuss the significance of this the latest atrocity committed against the Palestinians, placing it in historical context and pondering its impact on an international community that can no longer deny a withering truth: Israel under Netanyahu's leadership is a rogue state.
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