Michael Moore asks: “How many more Palestinian civilians need to be executed?”
JVL Introduction
Michael Moore, the American film maker and author known for trenchant social and political critiques from Bowling for Columbine in 2002 to Trumpland in 2016, devoted his Cbristmas message this year to Israel’s war on Palestinians. We are grateful for his permission to republish it below.
Moore begins by remembering two Catholic women, a grandmother aged 70 and her 50-year-old daughter, killed by the Israeli Army while attending Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City in December 2023. A year later, Gazan Christians are still living in fear, along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians.
He goes on to condemn “ the entire assault on the civilian population of Gaza” as “one act of terrorism after another — ethnic cleansing, genocide, forced mass starvation, obliterating nearly every hospital, school, and apartment building.”
Finally, he excoriates Israel’s vengeful bloodlust and the US role in supporting it, asking, “can you please just give me a number as to when your thirst for revenge/blood will be satiated? … how many more Palestinian civilians need to be executed?”
See also his gracious reply to a reader displeased by what he had written.
NWI
This article was originally published by Michael Moore on Thu 26 Dec 2024. Read the original here.
In the Holy Land, Just a Couple of Dead Catholics
There is much to feel today — love, family, community, kindness, etc. I hope you are all well and where you want to be. My best wishes to you and your year ahead.
I also didn’t want the day to end without remembering what happened last year at Christmas. Nahida Khalil Anton, a 70-year-old Palestinian Catholic mother of seven and grandmother of 20, and her 50-year-old daughter, Samar Kamal Anton, were executed by the Israeli Army while attending Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City. Nahida had gotten up to use the restroom which was across the courtyard on the church grounds. The Israeli sniper on top of a nearby building tracked her through his high-powered scope as she made her way to the bathroom and pumped three bullets into her body, including one that tore a hole through her stomach as she fell to the ground.
Nahida’s daughter, Samar, who worked for the nuns as their cook at the Mother Teresa convent attached to the church, ran to her mother’s lifeless body and began to drag her to safety. As she did this, the sniper put his scope on her, aiming his powerful military assault rifle directly at her head and murdered her instantly by blowing her head apart.
An Israeli tank on the street fired three large shells into the church and convent destroying much of it and then shooting and wounding at least another 7 Catholics, including Samar’s brother Edward who works with Doctors Without Borders. “They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish,” witnesses including priests, nuns and parishioners reported.
Pope Francis condemned the killings by the Israeli forces as an “act of terrorism”. Of course the entire assault on the civilian population of Gaza has been one act of terrorism after another — ethnic cleansing, genocide, forced mass starvation, obliterating nearly every hospital, school, and apartment building. Murdering Catholics? Of course! Who do you think the regime is that rules — with the consent of the people — the State of Israel?
One year later I thought we should not forget them. We should offer up to their memory, their souls, our promise that not only will they not be forgotten, we will not give up our fight for their freedom and the freedom of their families. Say their names. Place this photo of them somewhere special. And make no mistake about what you and I are paying for. It’s on us.
Nahida Khalil Anton
Samar Kamal Anton
I know this is a day we’d rather focus on happier things.
Or perhaps the purpose of today is exactly this: Peace on Earth, Good Will to those that are Oppressed and living under Occupation.
Thank you everyone for what you do to make this world a better place.
— Michael Moore
P.S. One year ago today, December 25, 2023, Netanyahu went to Gaza to congratulate his IDF troops for killing 250 people in 24 hours — including attacks on refugee camps — saying, “We do not stop.”
One last request of the pro-Netanyahu crowd — the death toll of the innocents murdered in Gaza and the West Bank is now nearing 50,000 — the vast, vast majority of them babies, children, women and the elderly — can you please just give me a number as to when your thirst for revenge/blood will be satiated? Of the 1,200 slaughtered by Hamas fighters on 10/7/23, how many more Palestinian civilians need to be executed? I know there has to be a number. Would another 100,000 do? A million? Just give us a number so we’ll know when this can end. And how many people can we Americans go kill in Guatemala tonight so we can avenge the death of the woman on the NYC subway last week who died when that Guatemalan migrant set her body on fire? Would it not be righteous for us to just drop an atomic bomb on Guatemala and wipe ‘em all out? I want blood! I want the blood of Guatemalans dripping from my mouth! Justice! Revenge! More murder! Yes!!!! Oh, it feels soooo good during the holidays!
“the 1,200 slaughtered by Hamas fighters on 10/7/23” ~ such a pity that this number has entered mythology.
As the cars carrying festival goers and others were quickly disposed of, many clearly destroyed to Hellfire missiles from IOF helicopters, we may/will never know how many were killed by the Israeli mass Hannibal.
I’ve even seen the same number repeated in other JVL posts. This is how history comes to be distorted.
“the IDF had in practice applied the Hannibal Directive from noon of 7 October, ordering all combat units to stop “at all costs” any attempt by Hamas militants to return to Gaza with hostages. IDF helicopters fired on cars trying to cross into Gaza. …. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli soldiers inspected around 70 vehicles on the roads leading to Gaza that had been hit by a helicopter, tank or UAV, killing all occupants in at least some cases.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire_during_the_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war
Is it just me, or is anyone else shocked to see that photograph? Israel and its allies have been so successful in dehumanising the people of Gaza that it is strangely surprising to see faces (and names) of the IDF’s victims. These are real people.
An excellent reply too to Aron. Refreshing to see a prominent American challenging the narrative that most of his countrymen (and ours) have been happy to accept.
You always quote 1200 killed by Hamas but not that Israelis killed their own people on that day
I remember it well. Christian Palestinian women were murdered, as they were attending church, in Gaza, by the Israeli Army. It was part of the genocide of the indigenous Palestinian people by the terrorist state of Israel. It is backed by the USA. Israel is also supported by the government of our own country. Most people in Britain are horrified by the genocide and are opposed to it.
Mr Moore is asking the wrong question. For some people, the thirst for blood is never satiated: it grows stronger. The terror in France only ended with the fall of Robespierre. The terror in the Soviet Union only ended with the death of Stalin.
Great post but even Michael still states that “Of the 1,200 slaughtered by Hamas fighters on 10/7/23 . . . . . .”
Haaretz News and Jewish Organisations now acknowledge that the IDF killed over half of them with Apache helicopters and tanks.
No trying to diminish the war crime committed by Hamas but let’s get it right once and for all.