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In Words and Deeds: The Genesis of Israeli Violence
By Ramzy Baroud Not a day passes without a prominent Israeli politician or intellectual making an outrageous statementagainst Palestinians. Many of these statements tend to garner little attention or evoke rightly deserved outrage. Just recently, Israel's Minister of Agriculture, Uri Ariel, called for more death and injuries on Palestinians in Gaza. "What is this special weapon we have that we fire and see pillars of smoke and fire, but nobody gets hurt? It is time for there to be injuries and deaths as well," he said. Ariel's calling for the killing of more Palestinians came on the heels of other repugnant statementsconcerning a 16-year-old teenager girl, Ahed Tamimi. Ahed was arrested in a violent Israeli army raid at her home in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. A video recording showed her slapping an Israeli soldier a day after the Israeli army shot her cousin in the head, placing him in a coma. Israeli Education Minister, Naftali Bennett, known for his extremist political views, demanded that Ahed and other Palestinian girls should "spend the rest of their days in prison". A prominent Israeli journalist, Ben Caspit, sought yet more punishment. He suggested that Ahed and girls like her should be raped in jail. "In the case of the girls, we should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras", he wrote in Hebrew. This violent and revolting mindset, however, is not new. It is an extension of an old, entrenched belief system that is predicated on a long history of violence. Undeniably, the views of Ariel, Bennett and Caspit are not angry statements uttered in a moment of rage. They are all reflections of real policies that have been carried out for over 70 years. Indeed, killing, raping and imprisoning for life are features that have accompanied the state of Israel since the very beginning. This violent legacy continues to define Israel to this day, through the use of what Israeli historian Ilan Pappe describes as 'incremental genocide.' Throughout this long legacy, little has changed except for names and titles. The Zionist militias that orchestrated the genocide of the Palestinians prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948 merged together to form the Israeli army; and the leaders of these groups became Israel's leaders. Israel's violent birth in 1947- 48 was the culmination of the violent discourse that preceded it for many years. It was the time when Zionist teachings of prior years were put into practice and the outcome was simply horrifying. "The tactic of isolating and attacking a certain village or town and executing its population in a horrible, indiscriminate massacre was a strategy employed, time and again, by Zionist bands to compel the population of surrounding villages and towns to flee," Ahmad Al-Haaj told me when I asked him to reflect on Israel's past and present. Al-Haaj is a Palestinian historian and an expert on the Nakba, the 'Catastrophe' that had befallen Palestinians in 1948. The 85-year-old intellectual's proficiency in the subject began 70 years ago, when, as a 15-year-old, he witnessed the massacre of Beit Daras at the hands of Jewish Haganah militia. The destruction of the southern Palestinian village and the killing of dozens of its inhabitants resulted in the depopulation of many adjacent villages, including al-Sawafir, Al-Haaj's home village. "The notorious Deir Yasin massacre was the first example of such wanton killing, a model that was duplicated in other parts of Palestine," Al-Haaj said. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine at the time was orchestrated by several Zionist militias. The mainstream Jewish militia was the Haganah which belonged to the Jewish Agency. The latter functioned as a semi-government, under the auspices of the British Mandate Government, while the Haganah served as its army. However, other breakaway groups also operated according to their own agenda. Two leading bands amongst them were the Irgun (National Military Organization) and Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang). These groups carried out numerous terrorist attacks, including bus bombings and targeted assassinations. Russian-born Menachem Begin was the leader of the Irgun which, along with the Stern Gang and other Jewish militants, massacred hundreds of civilians in Deir Yassin. 'Tell the soldiers: you have made history in Israel with your attack and your conquest. Continue this until victory. As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosen us for conquest," Begin wrote at the time. He described the massacre as a "splendid act of conquest." The intrinsic link between words and actions remain unchanged. Nearly 30 years later, a once wanted terrorist, Begin became Prime Minister of Israel. He accelerated land theft of the newly-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, launched a war on Lebanon, annexed Occupied Jerusalem to Israel and carried out the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla in 1982. Some of the other terrorists-turned-politicians and top army brass include Begin, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, Rafael Eitan and Yitzhak Shamir. Each one of these leaders has a record dotted with violence. Shamir served as the Prime Minister of Israel from 1986 - 1992. In 1941, Shamir was imprisoned by the British for his role in the Stern Gang. Later, as Prime Minister, he ordered a violent crackdown against a mostly non-violent Palestinian uprising in 1987, purposely breaking the limbs of kids accused of throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. So, when government ministers like Ariel and Bennett call for wanton violence against Palestinians, they are simply carrying on with a bloody legacy that has defined every single Israeli leader in the past. It is the violent mindset that continues to control the Israeli government and its relationship with Palestinians; in fact, with all of its neighbors. - Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. His forthcoming book is 'The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story' (Pluto Press, London). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net. |
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Impediments to UNRWA's Mandate Reflect Intention to Make Violations Permanent By Ramona Wadi Last year, Israel and the US invested unprecedented efforts in discrediting the legitimate rights of Palestinians and seeking to limit, to the point of dysfunction, the role of institutions working directly with Palestinian refugees, notably the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June 2017, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley accused the UN of bullying tactics against Israel, prompting Netanyahu to state mere days later that UNRWA should be dismantled. Since the early days of Donald Trump's presidency, Israel is no longer choosing who to discredit. Supported in international institutions by the US in an overt manner, Netanyahu has adopted a different strategy - that of leveraging similar attacks on the UN and Palestinians (despite the body's support for Israel's colonial project). However, both the UN and Palestinians are subjugated to the point of dependence, albeit under different circumstances. The UN's dependence is directly linked to maintaining the cycle of human rights violations. Palestinians, on the other hand, have been forced into dependence for survival because the international community, in accordance with Israel's demand, eliminated the possibilities for anti-colonial struggle and framed the political cycle of displacement as a humanitarian concern. The recent news that Trump is withholding more than half of its financial annual contribution to UNRWA makes this dynamic even clearer. Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl's statement reflects both the necessity of the organisation's work, as well as the importance of assuring the permanence of services offered to Palestinian refugees. It is no secret that the US has always guaranteed billions for Israeli violence and millions as hypocritical compensation for the perpetual violations inflicted upon Palestinians. Identical tactics have been implemented in the context of UNRWA. The needs of Palestinian refugees are not being met in a way which befits autonomy and independence, despite the US being the largest single donor until 2017. The deficit created through US collaboration with Israel ensures that UNRWA will be restricted in its accomplishments, with the result that Palestinians will remain tethered to priorities related to basic needs in order to survive. Thus, it is contradictory to call for the dismantling of UNRWA while reducing its budget. The needs of Palestinians perpetuated by Israel, the US and the international community, have to be met in a specific manner that is stronger than the current measure. If the organisation's budget is severely crippled, it stands to reason that necessities will have to remain a priority. Since Palestinians are not fictitious, despite what Netanyahu and the Zionist narrative proclaim, neither the refugees nor their needs will disappear. UNRWA's existence is a consequence of the Israeli colonial project. In a world not morally warped, the focus of accountability would be shifted upon the aggressor, rather than a dependent organisation that cannot completely guarantee the well-being of Palestinian refugees, let alone autonomy. Perhaps Netanyahu can consider the obvious solution which would see the end of the humanitarian approach towards Palestinians: decolonize the land, let the refugees return to historic Palestine, and the UNRWA saga will come to a dignified end. - Ramona Wadi is a staff writer for Middle East Monitor (MEMO) in London, where this article was originallypublished. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. |
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Why Is the Israeli Army Finally Worried About Gaza? By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth Last week Israeli military officials for the first time echoed what human rights groups and the United Nations have been saying for some time: that Gaza's economy and infrastructure stand on the brink of collapse. They should know. More than 10 years ago the Israeli army tightened its grip on Gaza, enforcing a blockade on goods coming in and out of the tiny coastal enclave that left much of the 2 million-strong population there unemployed, impoverished and hopeless. Since then, Israel has launched three separate major military assaults that have destroyed Gaza's infrastructure, killed many thousands and left tens of thousands more homeless and traumatized. Gaza is effectively an open-air prison, an extremely overcrowded one, with only a few hours of electricity a day and its ground water polluted by seawater and sewage. After a decade of this horrifying experiment in human endurance, the Israeli army finally appears to be concerned about whether Gaza can cope much longer. In recent days it has begun handing out forms, with more than a dozen questions, to the small number of Palestinians allowed briefly out of Gaza - mainly business people trading with Israel, those needing emergency medical treatment and family members accompanying them. One question asks bluntly whether they are happy, another whom they blame for their economic troubles. A statistician might wonder whether the answers can be trusted, given that the sample group is so heavily dependent on Israel's good will for their physical and financial survival. But the survey does at least suggest that Israel's top brass may be open to new thinking, after decades of treating Palestinians only as target practice, lab rats or sheep to be herded into cities, freeing up land for Jewish settlers. Has the army finally understood that Palestinians are human beings too, with limits to the suffering they can soak up? According to the local media, the army is in part responding to practical concerns. It is reportedly worried that, if epidemics break out, the diseases will quickly spread into Israel. And if Gaza's economy collapses too, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians could be banging on Israel's door - or rather storming its hi-tech incarceration fence - to be allowed in. The army has no realistic contingency plans for either scenario. It may be considering too its image - and defense case - if its commanders ever find themselves in the dock at the International Criminal Court in the Hague accused of war crimes. Nonetheless, neither Israeli politicians nor Washington appear to be taking the army's warnings to heart. In fact, things look set to get worse. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week there could be no improvements, no reconstruction in Gaza until Hamas agrees to give up its weapons - the only thing, in Hamas's view, that serves as a deterrent against future Israeli attack. Figures show Israel's policy towards Gaza has been actually growing harsher. In 2017 exit permits issued by Israel dwindled to a third of the number two years earlier - and a hundredfold fewer than in early 2000. A few hundred Palestinian business-people receive visas, stifling any chance of economic revival. The number of trucks bringing goods into Gaza has been cut in half - not because Israel is putting the inmates on a "diet", as it once did, but because the enclave's Palestinians lack "purchasing power". That is, they are too poor to buy Israeli goods. Netanyahu has resolutely ignored a plan by his transport minister to build an artificial island off Gaza to accommodate a sea port under Israeli or international supervision. And no one is considering allowing the Palestinians to exploit Gaza's natural gas fields, just off the coast. In fact, the only thing holding Gaza together is the international aid it receives. And that is now in jeopardy too. The Trump administration announced last week it is to slash by half the aid it sends to Palestinian refugees via the UN agency UNRWA. Trump has proposed further cuts to punish Mahmoud Abbas, the increasingly exasperated Palestinian leader, for refusing to pretend any longer that the US is an honest broker capable of overseeing peace talks. The White House's difficulties are only being underscored as Mike Pence, the US vice-president, visits Israel as part of Trump's supposed push for peace. He is being boycotted by Palestinian officials. Palestinians in Gaza will feel the loss of aid severely. A majority live in miserable refugee camps set up after their families were expelled in 1948 from homes in what is now Israel. They depend on the UN for food handouts, health and education. Backed by the PLO's legislative body, the central council, Abbas has begun retaliating - at least rhetorically. He desperately needs to shore up the credibility of his diplomatic strategy in pursuit of a two-state solution after Trump recently hived off Palestine's future capital, Jerusalem, to Israel. Abbas threatened, if not very credibly, to end a security coordination with Israel he once termed "sacred" and declared as finished the Oslo accords that created the Palestinian Authority he now heads. The lack of visible concern in Israel and Washington suggests neither believes he will make good on those threats. But it is not Abbas's posturing that Netanyahu and Trump need to worry about. They should be listening to Israel's generals, who understand that there will be no defense against the fallout from the catastrophe looming in Gaza. (A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.) - Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His books include "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" (Pluto Press) and "Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair" (Zed Books). He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.jonathan-cook.net. |
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| selected articles. Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, launched #DignityIsPriceless campaign upon arrival in the Gaza Strip on Monday. The campaign aims to collect funds for Palestine refugees following the US decision to cut down its funds given [...] By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth Last week Israeli military officials for the first time echoed what human rights groups and the United Nations have been saying for some time: that Gaza's economy and infrastructure stand [...] Women from the Black Lives Matter Movement made a powerful statement supporting Palestinian women at the Women's march in Los Angeles. The New York Times reported that nearly 600,000 women marched in the southern California [...] By Rima Najjar I wish Caryl Churchill would write a follow up to her play Seven Jewish Children and call it Seven Palestinian Children. Churchill's play, first produced in February of 2009, was "for Gaza", [...] Israeli authorities should abandon a new policy that could lead to the indefinite detention of thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese nationals for refusing to leave Israel for Rwanda or Uganda, Human Rights Watch said today. [...] By Ramona Wadi Last year, Israel and the US invested unprecedented efforts in discrediting the legitimate rights of Palestinians and seeking to limit, to the point of dysfunction, the role of institutions working directly with [...] Pro-Palestinian activists with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Campaign, BDS, in South Asia joined progressive commentators in slamming the Israeli prime minister over his visit to India and his charm offensive at the country's film [...] Palestinian-American blogger Amani Khatahtbeh made headlines this week after she refused to accept an award from the cosmetic brand Revlon over having its branding ambassador be actress Gal Gadot, a former Israeli soldier who had [...] By Fayhaa Shalash 32-year old Israa Jaabis has been languishing in an Israeli prison for nearly 2 and a half years, carrying out an 11 year sentence for, according to the Israeli Military Court, attempting [...] |
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