In April 1919, at Amritsar in the Punjab, a rifle detachment of sepoys of the British Indian Army fired 1,650 rounds into an unarmed throng of civilians who had gathered in a walled garden to celebrate the festival of Baisakhi and to peacefully demonstrate against the imprisonment of two of its leaders. A total of 379 people were killed and over 1,000 were seriously injured.

At the ensuing enquiry the commander, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, admitted he knew that many women and children were in the crowd but declared that their slaughter was necessary because they posed a political danger. For his action, he was admonished and transferred but not punished in any other way. On his return to England, he was feted as a national hero by the elitist commercial bankers and merchants who stood to gain from the continuing subjugation of the Indian subjects of the Emperor - King George V.

In December 2020, a team of sixteen Spanish hunters slaughtered with assault weapons a total of 540 animals (mainly deer and wild boar) contained within the 1,700 hectares of the walled private estate known as Torre Bela in Azumbaja. When questioned, they claimed that their action had been promoted by a group of developers to whom 775 hectares had been ceded for enabling the installation of a “central fotovoltaica”. It was also claimed that the estate was of touristic importance as a destination for the select guests of wealthy corporations.

The publication in the media of photographs of the dead animals laid out in military formation and the hunters adopting macho poses brought a storm of protest both from activists for animal rights and from Portuguese hunters who considered that the killing was both unlicensed and unsporting! However, the official investigation by the police, the public prosecutor and several official bodies (ICNF, Municipality, Tourism) was hampered by the inevitable secrecy of Justice and the anonymity initially granted to the owners of the estate and the developers.

In January 2025, RTP issued a bulletin to say that the Herdade da Torre Bela is embroiled in renewed controversy because the farm workers had been ordered to trap the remaining deer and other wild animals with nets and cords where they are left to die of starvation and thirst.

In the USA, a common source of entertainment is a “turkey shoot” where the unfortunate birds are labelled with numbers and then herded into an enclosure where prizes are won by the trigger-happy sharp shooters for the rapidity of destruction.

Why, you may well ask, should a fuss be made over these examples of animals being massacred in confined spaces when death and mutilation is an everyday occurrence in abattoirs and theatres of war? The corollary of global blood-lust lies in the long history of Imperialism which defines wild and domestic animals, slaves, indentured workers and even warriors as being expendable objects or “things” with only a negligible, if any, legal status or value. This position then enables their maltreatment and slaughter by the ruling classes without fear of retribution.

Such is the pitiful case of the two million Palestinians who subsist in their homeland of Gaza; a coastal strip of 365 sq. km. in which they have been imprisoned by a security fence on three sides and armed naval patrols at sea. Of this population 47% are aged under 18 while only a small number have managed survival beyond retirement age.

It was in 1948 that the military might of the new Israeli state enforced the first relocation to refugee camps of those who had seen their homes and farms bulldozed. During the intervening years, the besieged Palestinian people have suffered deprivation, humiliation, starvation and execution in increasingly abominable proportions at the hands of their oppressors who scornfully reject any motion by the UN for the restoration of boundaries and the reunion of Gaza with the West Bank as a single sovereign State.

Recent statements by Israeli ministers of the nationalist government have echoed the popular mob chants of “Death to all Arabs”. Yoav Gallant the minister for “defence” has declared “There will be no electricity, food or fuel. We are fighting human animals and are acting accordingly”. Bezabel Smotrich, the finance minister, speaking to a conference of militant settlers on 06 May, declared that within the next six months the entire population will be moved to the Morag Corridor, a narrow strip of land between Khan Younis and the Egyptian border. The IDF will then complete the devastation of central and northern Gaza regardless of the loss of life to those unwilling or unable to leave their land. Reconstruction of Gaza on the vacant plots will be initiated to create the “Florida of Israel” envisioned by President Trump with, no doubt, the assistance of forced labour from the humanitarian area (refugee camps) of the Corridor.

The turkey shoots which have been a repetitive feature of the 28,000 days of occupation will continue whether or not these intentions are to be realised and their perpetrators remain immune from prosecution as did generals and hunters of the past.

by Roberto Cavaleiro - Tomar 01 June 2025