JERUSALEM
A group of Jewish activists late on Saturday held a memorial service for Palestinian children killed by Israel in its ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The group, "Jews Against Genocide", gathered outside the Israeli Supreme Court in West Jerusalem to set children’s dolls on fire in protest against Israel's attacks on Gaza amid a rising death toll from these attacks in the Palestinian territory.
“We brought dolls to refer to the children of Gaza,” Neta Golan, a spokesperson for the group, told Anadolu Agency outside the court.
"The Israeli Supreme Court has been paving the road for apartheid and genocide against Palestinians by granting impunity to Israel's war criminals,” Golan added.
She accused the top Israeli court of “legitimizing" Israel's "criminal" activities in the Gaza Strip. She said these activities are a violation of international law.
“Like other institutes of the Israeli apartheid regime, the top court is also complicit in murdering the children of Gaza by giving the green light for Israel's army’s criminal activities,” she added.
The group also accused Israel of discrimination, saying the Israeli government does not treat Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs on an equal footing.
“A man was killed by a rocket in the Bedouin village of Ujan (a few hundred meters away from the Gaza border) and no public shelter existed there as in Jewish Israel,” the group said in a statement.
“Only last week did the Supreme Court rule that the state of Israel is not responsible for protecting Bedouin civilians from artillery attacks; the same court legitimizes the ongoing occupation and apartheid of Palestine for decades,” it added.
The group called on the international community to speak against this “discrimination”, saying that no child deserves to live under “constant terror.”
The Palestinian death toll from Israel's devastating military action in the Gaza Strip had risen to 1359, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
According to official Israeli figures, 43 Israelis – 40 troops and three civilians – have been killed since hostilities began on July 7.
“A murderer today only needs a screen and a button … That is how military high-techs bless us" read a poem written by Noa Abend, a 30-year-old member of the "Jews against Genocide" group.
Soon, however, Supreme Court guards tried to disperse the protest, inviting policemen to arrest its participants.
By Turgut Alp Boyraz
www.aa.com.tr/en
