Spring Break
U.S. shouldn't sponsor state terrorism, apartheid in Palestine
Saleh Ibrahim
Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: Commentary
While the rest of the world was celebrating New Year's Eve, the people of Gaza were under fire. For over three weeks, Israeli airplanes dropped a thousand tons of bombs on the Gaza sector, leaving 430 Palestinians children dead and about 0.5 percent of the Palestinians of Gaza either dead or injured. This is equivalent to killing or injuring 1.4 million Americans, the vast majority of which are civilians. The fact that Israel receives close to $3 billion in military aid from the United States every year makes the U.S. indirectly responsible for the Gaza holocaust.
The Israeli army forced a media blackout on its war on Gaza, blocking all major news networks from sending reporters into the Gaza, leaving only the Israeli official justification of "rocket attacks" to go through to the media. But the war on the people of Gaza isn't really about rockets, nor is it about "restoring Israel's deterrence," as the Israeli press might have you believe.
The words of Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff in 2002, are far more revealing: "The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people."
But how do we morally justify putting pressure on the Palestinians to accept defeat, while their story is that of a people who were forcefully expelled from their villages in 1948, so that the Jewish State of Israel be established; a people who took refuge in Gaza 60 years ago, only to fall under Israeli occupation 40 years ago and live under occupation since then.
Even when the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the ground in 2005, Israel maintained full control over access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza's air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will.
Since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006, fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation. The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment - with the tacit support of the United States - of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.
The Israeli army forced a media blackout on its war on Gaza, blocking all major news networks from sending reporters into the Gaza, leaving only the Israeli official justification of "rocket attacks" to go through to the media. But the war on the people of Gaza isn't really about rockets, nor is it about "restoring Israel's deterrence," as the Israeli press might have you believe.
The words of Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff in 2002, are far more revealing: "The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people."
But how do we morally justify putting pressure on the Palestinians to accept defeat, while their story is that of a people who were forcefully expelled from their villages in 1948, so that the Jewish State of Israel be established; a people who took refuge in Gaza 60 years ago, only to fall under Israeli occupation 40 years ago and live under occupation since then.
Even when the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the ground in 2005, Israel maintained full control over access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza's air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will.
Since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006, fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation. The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment - with the tacit support of the United States - of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 9
hmpierson
posted 2/04/09 @ 2:56 PM EST
"Since then, the political leadership of Hamas has reiterated its willingness to accept a Palestinian state within the borders of pre-1967 war, i.e., the two-state solution promoted by the Clinton administration. (Continued…)
anonymous
posted 2/04/09 @ 9:01 PM EST
"A two state solution is looking less and less possible, because the Palestinians will be satisfied with nothing less than the destruction of Israel."
Really? who is actually doing all the destructing? Tell me, be honest. (Continued…)
Khalid Roche
posted 2/04/09 @ 10:29 PM EST
I agree with Saleh Ibrahim's comment regarding the non recognition of Hamas as an integral part of any negotiations towards a solution to the issue of Palestine. (Continued…)
hmpierson
posted 2/04/09 @ 10:57 PM EST
"That some book your forefathers fabricated 3000 years ago gives you the right to Kill, occupy, oppress and continue to harass the native people."
I am trying to find some other interpretation than your implication that the Jewish case for a presence in the Middle East is a complete fiction. (Continued…)
Kim O'Brien
posted 2/04/09 @ 11:20 PM EST
If Israel wants to negociate with the elected Palestinian Gov't it should negociate with Hamas period. Hamas however represents Bourgeois forces within the Palestinian nation. (Continued…)
Faisal
posted 2/04/09 @ 11:43 PM EST
Israel doesn't want peace through justice, it wants a "peace" brought about by simply having the Palestinians to stop resisting the tyranny of Israel, it wants the 8-9+ million refugees to accept that it is the "right" of the zionist to somehow usurp and ethnically cleanse an area because of a divine promise (despite the fact that the actions taken by the zionist are anything but divine), and it wants the world to realize that its apartheid is somehow okay. (Continued…)
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