Israel and Palestinian armed groups have agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations, Qatar and Egypt, bringing a halt to an 11-day assault that has killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women and left around 2,000 seriously injured. Not mention the material and infrastructural damage of the Strip.
The ceasefire in the Gaza
Strip has held through its second day, as thousands of displaced Palestinians
in the besieged enclave returned to their homes to check for damage after 11
days of relentless Israeli bombardment.
Palestinian officials on Friday said it would cost $100m to
rebuild the damage to industry, power and agriculture in the already
impoverished territory struggling under a devastating 14-year blockade. More than 80,000 Palestinians lost their home.
Since 2008, Israel has waged four wars on the Palestinian territory, killing
thousands of people, mostly civilians. During Israel’s latest offensive on
Gaza, Israeli attacks damaged at least 51 education facilities, including 46
schools, two kindergartens, an UNRWA (The United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) training centre, and parts of
the Islamic University of Gaza, according to the United Nations’ latest humanitarian report.
At least 66,000 people are still sheltering in 58 UN-run schools across the
Gaza Strip.
Israeli raids also damaged at least six hospitals and 11 primary healthcare
centres, including Gaza’s only COVID-19 testing laboratory that was left
inoperable following an Israeli attack that hit a nearby building on May 17.
Gaza’s electricity network also suffered damage, leading to 20-21 hours of
daily power outages. This has affected water and sanitation facilities across
the strip, leaving at least 250,000 people without access to drinking water.
Gaza has a population of about 2.1 million people living in five
governorates – North Gaza, Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis, and Rafah.
Bordered by Israel and Egypt on the Mediterranean coast, the strip is about 365
square kilometres (141sq miles) – about the size of Cape Town, Detroit, or
Lucknow. At only 41km (25 miles) long, it can take less than an hour to drive
from Rafah in the south to Beit Hanoun in the north.
In the following series of maps, Al Jazeera takes you on a journey across
Gaza’s five governorates highlighting key locations including hospitals,
schools, universities, UN compounds, refugee camps, crossings and other vital
infrastructure.
North Gaza
The district of North Gaza shares a 10km-long (six-mile-long) border with
Israel. The Gaza Strip is surrounded by a heavily fortified perimeter
consisting of a concrete wall and double-wired fencing. Anyone who steps within
one kilometre (0.6 miles) of this barrier is in danger of being shot by the
Israeli army, which patrols Gaza’s northern and eastern borders.
The Erez crossing, managed by the Israeli army, is
Gaza’s only northern crossing into Israel. From there, Palestinians with
special permits – usually for urgent medical treatment – are allowed to leave
Gaza on their way to Jerusalem or the West Bank. Gaza is only a 100-km
(60-mile) drive to Jerusalem but because of tight security measures, this
journey can take several hours. Since 2007, Israel has imposed a sea and air
blockade of Gaza.
North Gaza is home to the largest refugee camp in the
Strip. The Jabalia refugee camp covers an area of 1.4sq km
(0.5sq miles), and with a population of 114,000 people is one of the most
densely populated places on Earth.
Gaza City
Gaza City is the largest and most populous city within the Gaza Strip, with
about 700,000 residents. Rimal, Shujaiya and Tel al-Hawa are among its most
well-known neighbourhoods.
At the heart of the Rimal neighbourhood is Al Shifa Hospital – the largest
medical facility in the Gaza Strip. Intensive care units there are desperately
overcrowded and are “having lots of difficulties in running equipment”, Gaza
journalist Youmna al-Sayed reported on Thursday.
Surrounding the hospital are several UN compounds including UNRWA (The
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East), UNSCO (The office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the
Middle East Peace Process) and UNDP (UN Development Programme) compounds.
Gaza’s top universities – including the Islamic University of Gaza, Al Azhar
University and the Al Aqsa University, which are just a few hundred metres
apart – are also located in the Rimal neighbourhood.
The Shati refugee camp, also known as Beach Camp, is located along Gaza’s
Mediterranean coastline and is the third-largest out of the Gaza Strip’s eight
camps.
Deir el-Balah
Named after the “Monastery of the Date Palm”, Deir el-Balah is one of
Gaza’s largest agricultural producers. It is also home to four refugee camps;
Nuseirat, Al Bureij, Al Maghazi and Deir el-Balah.
Gaza’s only operating power plant is located along the district’s boundary
with Gaza City. For the past 10 years, the Gaza Strip has suffered from chronic
electricity shortages, which have severely affected its ability to provide
essential services including health, water and sanitation services,
manufacturing and agriculture.
Only 5 percent of Gaza’s water is safe to drink and 68 percent of its
population suffer from food insecurity, according to the UN.
Khan Yunis
The district of Khan Yunis is home to 400,00 people. At its centre is the
Khan Yunis refugee camp, home to about 87,000 people.
In 2005, nearly 8,000 Jewish settlers and Israeli troops living in 21
settlements around Gaza were relocated mostly to the occupied West Bank
following a decision by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to
unilaterally disengage from the Gaza Strip. Most of these settlements were in
Khan Yunis
Israel claimed its occupation of Gaza since 1967 has ended as it has
pulled its troops and settlers from the territory but international law views
Gaza as occupied territory because Israel has full control over Gaza’s borders,
airspace and territorial waters.
Rafah
Rafah is the southernmost district of Gaza with a population of 250,000
people. The district is best known for the crossing with Egypt that bears its
name.
In 2020, the Rafah crossing and the Erez crossing into Israel were only
open for 125 days, according to the UN. Palestinians who wish to leave must
apply for a limited number of passes to leave the Gaza Strip. This process may
take weeks or months, depending on the status of the border.
Those who are able to get through the Rafah crossing must then make a
six-to-eight-hour journey through the Sinai Desert passing several Egyptian
checkpoints on their way to Cairo, 400km (250 miles) away. Rafah’s second
crossing into Egypt is the Salah al-Din gate used for transporting goods.
The third crossing from Rafah is the Israeli-controlled Karem Abu Salem
(Kerem Shalom) crossing. On May 18, it temporarily opened to allow the passage
of humanitarian and commercial cargo. However, only five of the 24 permitted
trucks were allowed through before it was prematurely closed.
Gaza has no functional airports after Israel bombed and demolished the
Yasser Arafat International Airport in 2001, only three years after it opened.
Gaza again is the scene of widespread destruction and human suffering and
remains the place often described as “the world’s largest open-air prison”.
"Israel has the right to defend itself", say Israeli accomplices
and the Zionist Project of ethnic cleansing of Palestine
"Equal forces"... Occupier and Occupied
"In Gaza, we are forced to choose between a quick and a slow death"
Outraged at Rogue Apartheid State of Isarel's crimes against the Palestinians?
"Israel has the right to defend itself", say Israeli accomplices
and the Zionist Project of ethnic cleansing of Palestine
A ceasefire came into force in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Friday morning after Efypt and Qatar brokered an agreement between Israel and Hamas to hal 11 days of conflict. In fact, this isn't really a "ceasefire". It never is. Israel will continue to kill Palestinians by land, sea and air in the coming days, weeks and months, as it has done with every "ceasefire".
« Ceasefire » = temporary halt to the mass slaughter and
a return to the lower intensity violence of Israeli occupation, ethnic
cleansing and apartheid that deprives Palestinians of freedom, dignity,
security, and perspective of a future for themselves and their children. We
remain far from justice.
Palestinians deserve more than not to die. They deserve to live
free. A ceasefire only guarantees the former — continued focus on Washington's rule in funding and supporting the occupation will help achieve the latter.
The first thing UN member states should do is to mandate an
international commission of inquiry to investigate systematic discrimination
and repression based on group identity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
and Israel. Let's see what Russia and China can do about it.
Israel finally accepted to stop pounding the Palestinians in Gaza. But only because Tel Aviv and Washington were totally caught off-guard by the massive Palestinian uprising and international civil society actions against their crimes. They hope the Gaza "ceasefire" will calm protests.
Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad then confirmed the
ceasefire in a statement, saying it would come into force at 2:00am on Friday
(23:00 GMT on Thursday).
Thousands of people in Gaza and the Palestinian occupied territories poured
onto the streets to celebrate the ceasefire, waving flags and flashing ‘V’
signs for victory.
More bodies are being pulled out from Gaza rubble, but so far, at least 243 Palestinians - including 66 children and 39 women - have been reported killed
in the Israeli bombardement. Around 2000 were seriously injured.
On the Israeli side, 12 people, including two children and soldiers (one of them, in the occupied West Bank), have been killed. Around 300 wounded.
The
WHO says Gaza prison is facing a public health crisis after 12 days of
Israeli bombing. 24 heath facilities are destroyed. 3 water plants out of
service. Hospitals facing fuel/power shortages. 184 residential towers, houses, and 33 media
centers have been completely demolished in Israel’s air strikes on Gaza. More
than 1,335 housing units were completely or severely demolished, and about
13,000 were partially damaged.
Israel meant to cause an intentional de-development.
And
China stepped in, backed by Russia. China will send assistance to help treat
the injured and find new accommodation for those left homeless as a result of
the Israeli air attacks on Gaza, state media reported, citing Tian Lin, a
spokesperson for the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA).
Meanwhile, Palestinians living in the flashpoint neighbourhood of Sheikh
Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem say they have been placed “under a siege” by
Israeli authorities. Recently Israeli police have been preventing non-residents from
entering the neighbourhood, which has been closed off.
"Equal forces"... Occupier and Occupied
"In Gaza, we are forced to choose between a quick and a slow death"
The United States has provided Israel with the necessary military
means and diplomatic cover to defeat Hamas in Gaza, while devastating the
livelihood of more than two million Palestinians, in what qualify as war
crimes.
The Biden administration has covered for Israel at the United
Nations and lied about it. Its denial of having obstructed a
mere statement by the UN Security Council (UNSC) calling for a ceasefire, makes
it look foolish, disingenuous and weak.
Washington has stood alone among the members of the council
in its opposition to consensus on a ceasefire, not once, not twice, but three
times in the past few days.
The White House spokesperson insisted that the US is
pursuing an “effective” approach of “quiet, intensive, diplomacy”, but as it
turns out, President Joe Biden has been merely buying Israel time to get on
with “finishing the job”.
According to a New York Times report, the US president told
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he might not be able to deter
growing international and domestic pressure for much longer, with the mounting
death and destruction caused by days of pounding Gaza.
When Biden finally asked Netanyahu to start winding down the war,
the arrogant Israeli premier rebuffed him, insisting instead on
taking his time to realise his objectives in the war, come what may.
Israel has concluded from the previous three Gaza offensives that
it could no longer accept a “strategic tie” with Hamas; that its military
victory must be quick, real and resounding; that Palestinians and other
regional nemeses must learn that they cannot achieve by force what they failed
to achieve through diplomacy; and that Israel will do what it must to win,
regardless of how long or how much the world whines.
On that basis, Israel is making an example of Gaza, sadistically
destroying its administrative, municipal and economic infrastructure, including
electricity, water and sewerage systems, setting it back years if not decades.
The images from Gaza speak louder than words.
Netanyahu is making Gaza suffer in a cynical ploy to satisfy his
vengeful ultra-nationalist base and continue to maintain his grip on power.
If he loses his premiership, he is likely to end up in jail, like
his predecessor Ehud Olmert, on any one of the three serious charges he now
faces in court – fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes.
Netanyahu was in dire straits only days before his fascist allies
began to run amok in occupied East Jerusalem, terrorising its residents. He had
failed yet again to form a coalition government and was finally forced to stand
trial after repeated postponements.
But, lo and behold, as soon as the escalation got under way, his
opponents failed to form a government, and as the escalation worsened, his
chances to remain in office improved dramatically, with smaller right-wing
parties like Yamina rallying behind him.
One has to wonder if any of this is in the US national interest.
The short answer is no, none of it. Nada. Zilch.
Indeed, the ensuing grave humanitarian crisis and the deepening
hatred for Israel and its enablers in the region and beyond is damaging to US
credibility and national interest.
This is especially true when the Biden administration claims to
put human rights at the centre of its foreign policy, while its spoiled brat of
a client takes advantage of its sympathy and support to commit war crimes.
Even the much-touted war on the Islamist movement, Hamas, is not
in the US best interest, not when it destabilises the region, and not when the
alternative is a negotiated settlement that could achieve peace and security –
peace for Israel and security for the Palestinians – based on freedom and
justice.
Unlike other pan-Islamic groups that threatened the US and Western
security, Hamas is a national liberation movement with religious undertones,
and like countless liberation movements, it uses force to achieve its
objectives.
Like it or hate it, Hamas has consistently limited the scope of
its activities and objectives to freeing Palestine from Israeli colonialism,
and it has long entrusted the negotiations to the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
For its part, Washington has negotiated an agreement with the
Islamist Taliban, which it has also long accused of terrorism and which proved
far more radical and less compromising than Hamas, in order to bring
peace to Afghanistan.
All of which begs the question: Why is the Biden administration did
Netanyahu’s dirty bidding, instead of helping to reach a similar agreement in
Palestine?
Netanyahu’s answer is simple: “America is a thing you can move
very easily, move it in the right direction.” This is what he said in 2001,
while assuring Israeli settlers that Israel could destroy the Palestinian
Authority and continue with illegal settlement building, regardless of the US
position.
In his view, Washington is gullible, and in the rare case when its
government plays hardball, Israel can deploy its influential lobby to whip it
into submission.
With the Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the Senate, Biden
cannot afford to alienate a single pro-Israel Democrat if he is to pass his
ambitious legislative agenda, not when the Republicans are blindly following
Netanyahu.
Israel could also count on the overwhelming backing it enjoys in
Congress and in the US in general, which is so substantial that Netanyahu aptly
called it, “absurd”. Paradoxically, the two senators leading the effort for an
immediate ceasefire, Bernie Sanders and Jon Ossoff, are Jewish.
More disturbingly, Netanyahu’s views reflect a general “disdain”
among Israelis for Americans, whom they reckon are “inherently dupable people”,
according to a report in the Jewish American publication, The Forward.
Over the years, the US has provided Israel with close
to $150bn in direct assistance only, and in return they are
rewarded with insult, for Israelis basically think the Americans, who long
showered them with money and weapons, are suckers.
But then, these are the same Israelis who willingly made an
infamous, cheating, deceiving, liar their country’s longest serving prime
minister, heading not one, not two, but five governments – and counting.
It is no coincidence that, after engaging five US administrations
over a quarter of a century, Netanyahu behaves so arrogantly towards US
leaders. Not only has he gotten away with almost anything, even things contrary
to US interests, he has also been rewarded for it.
Insane.
Netanyahu called US President Bill Clinton “radically pro
Palestinian”, even though the US president helped improve Israel’s regional and
international standing in the 1990s, when foreign investment skyrocketed, the
economy prospered, and trade increased while illegal settlement expanded.
Netanyahu’s chutzpah is best illustrated by his humiliation of US
President Barack Obama, lecturing him on the Middle East, denouncing him on the
Iran deal and his opposition to settlements, and snubbing
him in his talk directly to the Congress.
And Obama’s defeatism is best illustrated by his absurd rush in
the last months of his presidency to reward Netanyahu
with a $38bn military aid package.
Such military assistance may have been justifiable during the Cold
War, but today rich Israel is no longer a strategic asset; it is a strategic
liability for the US. Israel may have served US strategy in the past, but
that strategy proved bad for the US and the Middle East.
At any rate, if that was not weird enough, Netanyahu stalled,
insisting on $45bn, before finally signing on it. Bizarrely, other Israeli
leaders also complained about this “single largest pledge of military
assistance in US history”.
Wait, there is more.
Shortly after signing the deal, Netanyahu lashed out at the
Obama-Biden administration for abstaining during a UNSC vote on Israel’s
illegal settlements that Washington long opposed, calling it a “shameful
anti-Israeli ploy”.
And then came Donald Trump, the gift that kept on giving
concession after concession to Netanyahu. Among others, Trump recognised
Israeli annexation of Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, as well as
hundreds of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It was no coincidence that Netanyahu made clear his support for
Trump during the elections, but after becoming president, Biden
resumed the relationship with the ungrateful premier, as if
nothing had happened and even provided him with the diplomatic cover
to fight his ugly war.
As Netanyahu plunged Palestine into another dark and tragic
chapter of violence, and rejected Biden’s appeals to de-escalate the violence
in order to reach a ceasefire, the Biden administration is rewarding him with a
$735m arms sale that includes precision-guided weapons.
But it is never enough, alas.
Expect Binyamin Netanyahu to ask for more in return for de-escalation,
including more money and arms, and an invitation to Washington before Israel’s
fifth elections in two years. Netanyahu or Binyamin (Benny) Ganz, who was in
command of this round of « mowing the grass » in Gaza.
« Louis
Chabonneau, UN DirectorThe latest outbreak of violence in Gaza is depressingly
familiar. Scores of civilians, including children, have been killed and
injured. As usual, Israeli airstrikes in heavily populated areas of Gaza have
claimed the most victims, although Hamas rockets launched into Israel have also
killed and injured civilians.
As we try to grapple
with a new cycle of bloodshed and apparent war crimes by Israeli
authorities and Palestinian armed groups, it’s worth recalling what sparked the
latest violence: a dispute over the eviction of Palestinian families in East
Jerusalem.
The plan is to replace
these Arab Palestinian residents with Israeli Jews. Such evictions are all too
familiar — they’re part of the discriminatory oppression that the Israeli
government imposes throughout the Occupied Territories.
Human Rights Watch
issued a 213-page report in
April that helps put the recent bloodshed in its proper context. It
details the crimes against humanity of persecution and apartheid that
Israeli authorities are committing against millions of Palestinians.
The report’s
publication whipped up a storm of reactions. But we weren’t the first to make this determination — and we aren’t likely to be the
last. The growing recognition that apartheid is a reality today should push the
international community to question the assumptions that have long underlined
the conversation about Israel and Palestine.
Defining
‘Apartheid’
The years-long focus
on ceasefires and the “Middle East peace process” has led governments to
overlook or minimize the unbearable status quo on the ground. Meanwhile,
Israeli authorities have pursued policies aimed at ensuring the continued
domination of one group over another. There’s nothing to suggest that Israel’s
government views its 54-year-old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as
temporary.
International law, as
codified in two treaties, defines
the crime of apartheid. It was initially inspired by the South African
experience, but it’s been abstracted to capture other severe and structural
examples of discrimination intended to favor one group at the expense of
another.
The crime requires
three elements: an intention to maintain a system of domination, systematic
oppression, and inhumane acts committed as part of that project.
Human Rights Watch
found that Israeli authorities have demonstrated an intent to maintain a system
of domination across all the territory they control and carried out systematic
oppression and inhumane acts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The related crime of
persecution involves the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental
rights by reason of the identity of the group and requires discriminatory
intent.
Israel has legitimate security concerns. However, Human Rights Watch has documented a range
of inhumane acts that had nothing to do with security but instead reflected
solely a desire to control land and demography. Others had a security
basis but authorities had failed any reasonable test to address those concerns
in a focused manner that balanced them against the human rights of the
population harmed.
For decades, there
have been unrelenting land grabs, unchecked expansion of illegal settlements in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory, regular home demolitions, and confinement
of many Palestinians to under-resourced and overpopulated enclaves. In a stark
illustration of entrenched discrimination, Israel vaccinated all of its Jewish
and Palestinian citizens. But in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, it
vaccinated Jewish settlers while denying responsibility
for vaccinating most Palestinians.
What Can the United
Nations Do?
The United Nations
played a central role in
undoing South Africa’s system of apartheid. It should do that again with the
crimes of apartheid and persecution, globally and in Israel-Palestine.
But how?
The first thing UN
member states should do is to mandate an international commission of inquiry to
investigate systematic discrimination and repression based on group identity in
the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.
Given its history of involvement in the South Africa case — and the
fact that none of the 193 UN member states has a veto — the General Assembly is
well placed to take this up. And it is arguably the closest thing we have to a
world parliament. The UN Human Rights Council could also create a commission of
inquiry, as it has with other cases of widespread human rights abuses.
Another option is the
Security Council, although it has long been deadlocked due
to the U.S. government’s use of its veto power to shield Israel from criticism.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could also appoint a commission of
inquiry, but he has consistently refused to use his authority to establish
international investigations on a number of topics — such as the murder of the
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi or
the use of chemical weapons in Syria — that involve powerful member states or
their close allies.
Taking a Global
Approach
We’re also calling for
the appointment of a global UN envoy for the crimes of persecution and
apartheid with a mandate to push for the end of these crimes wherever they
occur.
For instance, Human
Rights Watch recently found that
the Myanmar authorities are committing the crimes of persecution and apartheid
against hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims. Myanmar authorities’
system of discriminatory laws and policies that make the Rohingya in Rakhine
State a permanent underclass because of their ethnicity and religion amounts to apartheid in violation of international law.
Human Rights Watch has said that Myanmar officials responsible for these
policies should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity of apartheid and
persecution.
A global UN envoy
could draw attention with regular public reports to UN member countries on
other countries where the crimes of apartheid and persecution are either in
full swing or on the verge of being committed.
Apartheid and
persecution have become the forgotten crimes against humanity, as a colleague
of mine wrote recently. A
UN global envoy could help end that neglect by pushing for greater awareness of
where and how those crimes are being carried out and identifying avenues for
accountability.
The UN can also offer
a forum for discussing these crimes. Various UN bodies and committees around
the world organize hundreds of meetings on a wide range of topics every year,
including Israel and Palestine. Those meetings offer an excellent opportunity to
regularly raise these issues and push the international community to
acknowledge the reality on the ground — a first step to changing it.
UN member states can
mobilize the UN system to pressure Israeli authorities to end these abuses. The
world should stop pretending that these crimes aren’t happening. It should also
not tolerate depriving millions of Palestinians of their fundamental rights in
order to preserve the possibility of a peace deal that isn’t coming anytime
soon.
We need to end the
abuses and crimes against humanity now. And the United Nations can help the
world do it. » By Louis Charbonneau. UN Director.
Outraged at Rogue Apartheid State of Isarel's crimes against the Palestinians?
"Israel has the right to defend itself", say Israeli accomplices
and the Zionist Project of ethnic cleansing of Palestine
Bernie Sanders's speech on US Senate yesterday
Not bad. However, it lacks accuracy in two points. A great majority of Israelis do approve the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. And Hamas, really represents the only resistence that Israel respects. The other is the BDS Movement, which is a civil rights boycott banned from the US and France. And the corrupt party in Palestine is the one attached to "Vichy" Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas and most Fatah officials. But Sanders couldn't know that, as his source is the NYT.
Israeli fighter jets continued to pummel the Gaza Strip on
Thursday, as Binyamin Netanyahu disregarded the United States’ call to seek a
de-escalation on the path to a ceasefire.
At least 230 Palestinians have been killed in 11 days of violence.
The dead include 65 children and 39 women.
On the Israeli side, 12 people have been killed. The dead include
two children and two soldiers.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday discussed the events in Gaza
with Netanyahu, telling the caretaker, without much conction, leader that he
expected “a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire”. But
Netanyahu, speaking after the phone call with Biden, said he was “determined”
to continue bombarding Gaza until Israel’s “aim is met”.
The aim being to "mow the lawn", as they say in Tel Aviv. Which means, to destroy all public,
private, Health and cultural facilities. To cause the most damage as is inhumanly possible. Pure evil, that is.
At least 184 residential buldings, houses, and 33 media centers have
been completely demolished in the Gaza Strip, with a loss value of $92 million.
Additionally, more than 1,335 housing units were completely or
severely demolished, and about 13,000 were partially damaged.
"Equal forces"... Occupier and Occupied
"In Gaza, we are forced to choose between a quick and a slow death"
A dear friend said yesterday that he feels that in France people
are puzzled by this new cycle of violence in Gaza. They don’t really understand
why.
Therefore, from the outset, some clarification regarding the
language used to depict the ongoing violence in occupied Palestine, and also
throughout Israel. This is not a ‘conflict’. Neither is it a ‘dispute’ nor
‘sectarian violence’ nor even a war in the traditional sense.
It is not a conflict, because Israel is an occupying power and
the Palestinian people are an occupied nation.
It is not a dispute, because freedom, justice and human rights
cannot be treated as if a mere political disagreement. The Palestinian people’s
inalienable rights are enshrined in international and humanitarian law and the
illegality of Israeli violations of human rights in Palestine is recognized by
the United Nations itself.
If it is a war, then it is a unilateral Israeli war, which is
met with humble, but real and determined Palestinian resistance.
Actually, it is a Palestinian uprising, an Intifada
unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian struggle, both in its nature
and outreach. Perhaps close to the uprising in 1936, when the Palestinians fought
to keep their historical rights to their land.
For the first time in many years, since the First Intifada in
the 1980’s, we see the Palestinian people united, from Jerusalem Al Quds, to
Gaza, to the West Bank and, even more critically, to the Palestinian
communities, towns and villages inside historic Palestine – today’s Israel.
This unity matters the most, is far more consequential than some
agreement between Palestinian factions. It eclipses Fatah and Hamas and all the
rest, because without a united people there can be no meaningful resistance, no
vision for liberation, no struggle for justice to be won.
Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could never
have anticipated that a routine act of ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem’s
neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah could lead to a Palestinian uprising, uniting all
sectors of Palestinian society in an unprecedented show of unity.
The Palestinian people have decided to move past all the
political divisions and the factional squabbles. Instead, they are coining new
terminologies, centered on resistance, liberation and international solidarity.
Consequently, they are challenging factionalism, along with any attempt at
making Israeli occupation and apartheid normal. Equally important, a strong
Palestinian voice is now piercing through the international silence, compelling
the world to hear a single chant for freedom.
The leaders of this new movement are Palestinian youth who have
been denied participation in any form of democratic representation, who are
constantly marginalized and oppressed by their own leadership and by the
relentless Israeli military occupation. They were born into a world of exile,
destitution and apartheid, led to believe that they are inferior, of a lesser
race. Their right to self-determination and every other right were postponed
indefinitely. They grew up helplessly watching their homes being demolished,
their land being robbed and their parents being humiliated.
Finally, they are rising.
Without prior coordination and with no political manifesto, just
like in 1987, this new Palestinian generation is now making its voice heard,
sending an unmistakable, resounding message to Israel and its right-wing
chauvinistic society, that the Palestinian people are not passive victims; that
the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah and the rest of occupied East Jerusalem,
the protracted siege on Gaza, the ongoing military occupation, the construction
of illegal Jewish settlements, the racism and the apartheid will no longer go
unnoticed; though tired, poor, dispossessed, besieged and abandoned,
Palestinians will continue to safeguard their own rights, their sacred places
and the very sanctity of their own people.
Yes, the ongoing violence was instigated by Israeli provocations
in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. However, the story was
never about the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah alone. The beleaguered
neighborhood is but a microcosm of the larger Palestinian struggle.
Netanyahu may have hoped to use Sheikh Jarrah as a way of
mobilizing his right-wing constituency around him, intending to form an
emergency government or increasing his chances of winning yet a fifth election.
His rash behavior, initially compelled by entirely selfish reasons, has ignited
a popular rebellion among Palestinians, exposing Israel for the violent, racist
and apartheid state that it is and always has been.
Palestinian unity and popular resistance have proven successful
in other ways, too. Never before have we seen this groundswell of support for
Palestinian freedom, not only from millions of ordinary individuals across the
globe, but also from celebrities – movie stars, footballers, mainstream
intellectuals and political activists, even models and social media
influencers. The hashtags #SaveSheikhJarrah and #FreePalestine, among numerous
others, are now interlinked and have been trending on all social media
platforms for weeks. Israel’s constant attempts at presenting itself as a
perpetual victim of some imaginary horde of Arabs and Muslims are no longer
paying dividends. The world can finally see, read and hear of Palestine’s
tragic reality and the need to bring this tragedy to an immediate end.
None of this would be possible were it not for the fact that all
Palestinians have legitimate reasons and are speaking in unison. In their
spontaneous reaction and genuine, communal solidarity, all Palestinians are
united, from Sheikh Jarrah, to all of Jerusalem, to Gaza, Nablus, Ramallah,
Al-Bireh and even Palestinian towns inside Israel – Al-Lud, Umm Al-Fahm, Kufr
Qana and elsewhere. In Palestine’s new popular revolution, factions, geography
and any political division are irrelevant. Religion is not a source of divisiveness
but of spiritual and national unity.
The ongoing Israeli atrocities in Gaza are continuing, with a
mounting death toll. This devastation will continue for as long as the world
treats the devastating siege of the impoverished, tiny Strip as if irrelevant.
People in Gaza were dying long before the Israeli airstrikes began blowing up
their homes and neighborhoods. They were dying from the lack of medicine,
polluted water, the lack of electricity and the dilapidated infrastructure.
We must save Sheikh Jarrah, but we must also save Gaza; we must
demand an end to the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and, with it, the
system of racial discrimination and apartheid. International human rights
groups are now precise and decisive in their depiction of this racist regime,
with Human Rights Watch – and Israel’s own rights group, B’tselem, joining the
call for the dismantlement of apartheid in all of Palestine.
Speak up. Speak out. The Palestinians have risen. It is time to
rally behind them.
«When I first visited Israel in
1976 after spending three years in Northern Ireland working on my second
degree, I was struck by the similarities between the situations in the two
countries.
It is therefore entirely appropriate that on the same day that the
Israeli-Palestinian crisis was exploding this week, an inquest in Belfast was
reporting on a mass killing by the British Army in Belfast half a century
earlier.
This was what became known as the Ballymurphy Massacre which took place
between 9 and 11 August 1971, when 10 Catholics were shot and killed in the
working-class district of Ballymurphy in west Belfast. The British government
and army claimed for years that the dead were IRA gunmen or had been throwing
petrol bombs. But the inquest determined this week that all the dead were
innocent civilians – and the army’s actions were “unjustified”. Boris Johnson
has apologised unreservedly for the killings.
An important parallel between Northern Ireland then and Israel/Gaza today
is that, in both cases, grossly excessive military force was and is used to try
to solve political problems that it only succeeds in exacerbating. In the case
of the Ballymurphy shootings, which took place during the introduction of
internment without trial, the British government managed only to delegitimise
itself, to spread hatred against itself and to act as the recruiting sergeant
for the Provisional IRA.
As in Northern Ireland half a century ago, the Israeli security services
keep announcing that they are winning famous victories and killing enemy
commanders, as if local leaders of the rag-tag paramilitary forces of Hamas and
Islamic Jihad were irreplaceable military technicians. Israeli prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu says that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “will pay a heavy price
for their belligerence.” No doubt they will, but the heaviest price will be
paid by civilians in Gaza, like in the last such conflict in 2014 when 2,000
Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed in a ‘war’ lasting 67 days.
In some respects, not much has changed since then, but that in itself is
significant because Donald Trump was the most pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian
president ever to occupy the White House. He and his son-in-law Jared Kushner
enthusiastically endorsed Netanyahu’s thesis that Israel can achieve a lasting
peace while at the same time keeping the Palestinians in a permanently
subordinate position as a defeated people.
That was never going to work, but the speed with which it has unravelled
over the last week, and within months of Trump leaving office, is still
surprising. The ‘Palestinian question’, what one British diplomat used to call
“the poison of Palestine”, is back on the international agenda, as unresolved
and explosive as it has been for the last hundred years.
Perhaps the biggest effect of the hype and spin of the Trump era was to
breed self-destructive hubris among Israelis at all levels of authority.
Israeli officials felt free to expand settlements on the West Bank, evict Palestinians
in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and order the police to throw
stun grenades and use tear gas around the Al-Aqsa mosque.
In one respect, the crisis is already more intense and wide-ranging than in
past ‘wars’ centred on Gaza in 2008/9 and in 2014. The new element is the
involvement of the two million Israeli Arabs/Palestinians who make up 20 per
cent of the Israeli population. In mixed towns and cities like Lod, Jaffa, Acre
and Haifa, synagogues and mosques, shops and cars, have been attacked and
individuals beaten. In Lod, for instance, where the rioting has been most
intense and is right next to Ben Gurion airport, the population is made up of
47,000 Israeli Jews and 23,00 Israeli Arabs/Palestinians.
The similarity between Israel and Northern Ireland goes beyond an
exaggerated and counter-productive use of military superiority to solve a
political problem. At the most fundamental level, both countries contain two
hostile communities of roughly equal size living intertwined in a small place.
In Northern Ireland, Catholics and Protestants each number about one
million, while in the more politically fragmented area between the Jordan River
and the Mediterranean Sea live 14 million people, seven million of them Israeli
Jews and seven million Palestinians. The area may be divided by fortified walls
and frontiers, but it is essentially a single political unit, as the spread of
violence from Jerusalem to Gaza to Israel and to the West Bank has demonstrated
in the last few days.
In Northern Ireland in 1971, the British government made the disastrous
mistake of using the British Army to prop up what was sometimes called “the
Orange State”. This meant that Catholics would have to accept a second-class
status in a state run by Protestants, something that – regardless of their
acceptance or rejection of physical force – the Catholics were never going to
do.
The determination of the Catholic community not to roll over should have
been obvious from day one of The Troubles, but it took the British government
thirty years to take this on board. When it finally did so the outcome was the
Good Friday Agreement of 1998 which shared power between two communities with
very different identities, culture and loyalties.
It would be nice to think that the same process might one day happen in
when it comes to Israel and Palestinians, but there are differences as well as
similarities between the two situations. Compromise in Northern Ireland
required a certain balance of power between the two communities and a recognition
by all, particularly by the British government and by Irish Republicans, that
neither side was going to win a complete victory.
Holding back any such compromise between Israel and the Palestinians is
that the balance of power appears to be overwhelmingly in favour of Israelis.
They do not feel the need to compromise because they have total military
superiority and the support of the United States and other powerful nations.
Palestinian weaknesses, several of them self-inflicted, include very poor
leadership and political organisation. Hamas can fire lots of rockets into
Israel in a show of defiance, but this is politically counter-productive since
it enables Israel to frame its actions as defensive and part of a war on
terror. The Palestinian National Authority based in Ramallah hasn’t held an
election for 15 years, with the latest attempt being postponed indefinitely
last month — and is now deeply compromised as a representative of its people.
The best strategy for the Palestinians should be to use their great numbers
in a peaceful mass campaign demanding civil right and an end to discriminatory
restrictions.
The Palestinians do hold a card of the highest value, which is that Israel
will not have won until the Palestinians declare that they have lost. The
events of last week showed that this is not going to happen. Israel wins trick
after trick at the political and military card table but can never be declared
the winner because it is playing a game that does not end.» By
Patrick Coburn.
Outraged at Rogue Apartheid State of Isarel's crimes against the Palestinians?
