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U.S. Refuses to Criticize Israel’s Massacre of 60+ Palestinians During Nonviolent Protest

HeadlineMay 16, 2018

Palestinian officials say the Israeli military shot dead two more Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday, only one day after the Israeli military massacred at least 61 unarmed Palestinians and wounded 2,700 more for protesting against the Israeli occupation and the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. The United States is refusing to criticize Israel after the massacre. At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley has blocked a call for an international investigation into Israel’s actions. On Tuesday, she repeatedly blamed the violence on Hamas while praising Israel for “showing restraint.”

Nikki Haley: “I ask my colleagues here in the Security Council: Who among us would accept this type of activity on your border? No one would. No country in this chamber would act with more restraint than Israel has.”

That was U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley. She later walked out of the Security Council chamber when the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, addressed the council. Meanwhile, hospitals in Gaza are continuing to struggle to deal with the thousands of patients who were wounded by the Israeli military on Monday and Tuesday. This is Ayman al-Sahbani, the director of the emergency room at Shifa Hospital.

Dr. Ayman al-Sahbani: “The emergency department at Shifa medical center received the biggest number of these injuries. We received almost 500 injuries, while the capacity of the emergency department is 20 beds, or 20 injuries. We are talking about 25 times as much of the capacity of the emergency department, with all the big challenges and the shortage in medicine and the medical supplies that reached critical levels.”

We’ll have more on Israel, Gaza and the U.S. response after headlines.

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