palestine – Pilant's Business Ethics Blog

If you believe in morality and ethics, you have a duty to speak out particularly when there is an particularly offensive tragedy that has taken place.

Seven aid workers were killed by a precision drone strike. Israel is responsible for these deaths.

Let me begin by naming the seven dead aid workers: (I’m going to use a quote since I don’t want to get any names wrong.)

The victims have been identified as Poland’s Damian Soból, Australia’s Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, Gaza’s Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha and American-Canadian dual citizen Jacob Flickinger, as well as the United Kingdom’s John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby.

These seven people are heroes, in my judgment, the best of us. They died attempt to feed and help other human beings. Their lives are a testament to the good that can be achieved by high moral values and the rare qualities of courage and sacrifice. God love every one of these wonderful people now lost to all of us.

Israel calls claims that the attack was targeted, “Absurd.” Yet, the food convoy had just dropped off food in a designated safe travel zone with the full knowledge of the Israeli military in clearly marked vehicles which were hit individually although they were hundreds of yards apart. Looking at the pictures of the destroyed cars I was shocked at the almost perfect precision of the hits.

I am having real trouble believing that Israel did not kill these people to deprive the Palestinians of food and to drive foreign observers out of the region so they can kill and commit crimes at will.

But there’s more. It is reported that the Israeli military established a ratio for acceptable collateral damage, that is, the killing of civilians. For a low level Hamas official it was okay to up to 20 civilians, for a high ranking as many as a hundred.

Israel has long been a United States ally. Sometimes I get the impression that they are shocked that we in the United States would question what they have done. But at this point in history, not counting the seven aid workers blown into pieces, 33,000 Palestinians have died in the current conflict and more than a million are starving. It is time to start asking questions and making demands. They depend on American money. That money should no longer be free of conditions. Why? Because the blood of the innocent is calling out to us and we have a duty as human beings to respond with justice.

Is Israel willing to make changes? I doubt it. There is this from the great state of Arizona:

An Israeli diplomat praised Arizona lawmakers for their support and condemned the international community’s lack of outrage at the harm Israel has suffered from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. In a speech punctuated by three standing ovations, Israel Bachar, the country’s counsel general for the Pacific Southwest, refuted reports of starvation in Gaza and rebuffed calls for a ceasefire unless Hamas meets certain conditions.

It is pretty obvious to me that they feel with their allies in the media, politics and of course, American Evangelicals, they can just bluff their way through this. They can’t. There is too much blood.

We in the United States cannot escape blame. We give Israel about three billion a year and our total aid comes to about 260 billion dollars over the long term. Last year in response to the Hamas attacks, they received a 14.5 billion dollar military aid package. This emboldened that nation and every time someone dies at the hands of Israel, it is more than a little likely that U.S. dollars paid for the bullet.

Now, I am sure that some will do the “what about” argument so popular on the internet and on Fox News. So, here it is.

What about the crimes of Hamas? Aren’t you being naïve and serving their purposes by calling out Israel for their supposed crimes?

Hamas has murdered and kidnapped. They are currently holding hostages. They should be brought to justice. I am not on their “side.” We have a responsibility and a duty to humanity to do what is right. And what is right is avoiding indiscriminate killing, collateral damage and at the very, very least missile strikes on food convoys. And that is true whether “we” did it, our friends did it or our enemies did it.

You don’t do what is right because it is convenient. You do it because it is the right thing to do. We have duties in this life. If there is anything that I am completely sure of, it is that those seven dead aid workers deserve more a passing mention in a news feed. Something must be done about this.

James Alan Pilant

Pilant's Business Ethics Blog

Tag: palestine

Who Are You Going to Believe about the Aid Workers Killed in Gaza??

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