By *Jomo Sanga Thomas
(“Plain Talk” May 30, 2025)
Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister (2006 to 2009) and renowned war criminal who should be serving time in the Hague (home of the International Criminal Court) for crimes against humanity, wrote a stinging op-ed piece last week that labelled what Israel is doing in Gaza as a war crime.
Olmert, whose mea culpa came days before his 80th birthday, probably stems from frantic musings on how he would spend eternity, coined the term “haircut” to describe Israel’s past military incursions into Gaza that claimed thousands of Palestinian lives.
He often asserted that Israel was not committing war crimes in Gaza and claimed with conviction that “in no case did a government official give orders to hit Gazan civilians indiscriminately.”
“However, in recent weeks, I’ve been no longer able to do so. What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians. It’s the result of government policy — knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated.”
Olmert asserted that “the government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success” in which “thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed”.
Olmert lamented that the “pointless victims among the Palestinian population” were reaching “monstrous proportions”. He claimed that “the criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel’s history”.
Olmert, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said, “Never since its establishment has the state of Israel waged such a war. Recent operations in Gaza have nothing to do with legitimate war goals,” he wrote. “This is now a private political war. Its immediate result is the transformation of Gaza into a humanitarian disaster area.”
Speaking to the BBC, Olmert described the conflict as a war without a purpose — a war without a chance of achieving anything that can save the lives of the hostages. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes was his damning conclusion.
Olmert’s comments followed those of Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army, who declared last week that “a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations”.
Olmert and Golan have admitted what many have been saying since Israel began its genocidal assault on Gaza following the heroic and legitimate Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by the Palestinian resistance. The 1960 United Nations declaration against colonialism not only calls for the independence of all colonial territories but also grants those suffering under colonial domination the right to resist by force of arms. Importantly, the declaration also does not grant a colonial power the right to defend itself in colonial territory.
On Oct. 14, 2023, Yaav Galant told the world that Israel was going to turn Gaza into a living hell. Gallant said then that all food, water, electricity and communications will be cut off from Gaza. The Netanyahu regime, which Elmert aptly described as a criminal gang, has destroyed homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and other crucial infrastructure that sustains life.
Moreover, Israel’s disregard for life was channelled very early when Gallant described the Palestinians as “human animals”. It will be remembered that a spokesman for Israel’s military declared that his government was primarily concerned with “maximum damage with less concern for accuracy”.
As a result, over 52,000 Palestinians have been confirmed dead. Thousands more may be covered under the rubble across Gaza. A recent United Nations survey stated that it will take approximately 10 years to clear the damaged buildings and an estimated $30 billion to rebuild.
And Israel is not done. Since March 11, it has tightened its murderous grip on Gaza. It has blocked all humanitarian aid, including that provided by the United Nations. It has arrogated to itself the authority to decide who gets food and water and who dies –thousands of Palestinians now on the brink of starvation. Many more are malnourished and are increasingly susceptible to opportunistic diseases.
Who is responsible for this 21st-century live-streamed genocide? Note that in recent days, some Western leaders, including the UK’s Starmer, Germany’s Merz, the EU’s chief bureaucrats, France’s Macron, and certain news outlets, have all made tepid criticisms of Netanyahu’s regime.
Don’t be fooled. Crocodile tears!
But make no mistake. As former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has repeatedly said, the leaders in the United States and Europe are the main culprits/criminals responsible for the continuing genocide in Gaza.
Ta-Nihisi Coates, the brilliant African American writer whose recent book, The Message contains a reasoned and damning indictment of Israel’s apartheid regime said “none of this should have happened. There are powerful people who could have stopped this. But white, influential world leaders allowed it to happen.” They are not concerned about Genocide. Some of the wildest anti-Semites support Israel’s right to exist. As Caitlyn Johnstone said “as long as Jews are supplanted from Europe and America, the historical hotbeds of anti-semitism and racism and placed on stolen Palestinian lands and made to fight Arabs and Muslims, Europe and America, will be quite pleased.”
There is no better proof of this view than the muted response and lack of outrage that emanate from European and American seats of power. Israel’s social security minister claims, “to be exact, there are innocents in Gaza — 58 of them referring to the 58 Israeli detainees held by the Palestinian resistance”.
The fascistic finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who previously advocated dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, said Israel is “destroying everything that’s left of the Gaza Strip. We are conquering, cleansing and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed.”
Last week, the Israeli demonic politician Moshe Feiglin told the world, “The enemy is not Hamas, nor is it the military wing of Hamas. Every child in Gaza is the enemy. We need to occupy Gaza and settle it, and not a single Gazan child will be left there. There is no other victory.”
No other country or leader in the world could speak in such vile and bellicose terms and get away with it. Israel is a cancerous leper in the West Asia and a stain on the world’s conscience. Those responsible for Israel’s sordid attempt at the erasure of Palestinians must be brought to heel.
*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].
Anyone who can write “heroic and legitimate Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by the Palestinian resistance” and say “Israel is a cancerous leper in the West Asia and a stain on the world’s conscience” hates Jews for being Jews with every fibre of his depraved being.
The fake Moslem Arab ethnic group now calling themselves “Palestinians” has no historical, legal, ethnic, or moral right to a square inch of the ancient land of Israel, the eternal homeland of the Jewish people.
The Jews are bare-face murderers. What they have done to the Palestinians is genocide. If a Hames soldier runs into a hospital to hide Israel then bombs the entire hospital. If a Hamas soldier run into refugee camp to hide Israel then bombs the refugee camp. And America and the rest of the Western world see it then sit and say nothing. But if Donald Trump says SA is committing genocide against whites, all of them sit at attention. Anything the Zionist/White supremacist do is justified and tolerated and everybody must go along.