“What it feels like
to live here you ask? It’s like being a shadow of your own, caught on the
ground, not being able to break out and you see yourself lying there, but you
cannot fill the shadow with life”.
- The words of a 17 year-old Palestinian boy in an Israeli
prison camp.
Unlike
any prison camp or Concentration Camp, Gaza is the largest, most crowded and
inhumane “open air” prison camp on earth. For nearly a decade, the Camp has been under Israeli military
siege. Periodically, the
Camp comes under barbaric attacks by the Israeli army to terrorise the Palestinian
population and instil fear in the Camp.
There are some 1.7
million (Muslim and Christian) Palestinians crammed into the 1.40 square miles Camp.
Most of the Palestinians (51% are younger than 18 years) are refugees who have
been ethnically cleansed from their land by the Israeli fascist regime. The
Camp is under Israeli
military blockade from land, sea, and air. In addition to an electronic fence
and remote-controlled guns mounted on Israeli watch towers around the camp, the
Israeli army enforces a 300 to
500-meter-wide “no-go zone” or “buffer zone” inside
the full length of the Camp.
Palestinians cannot enter the zone, but the Israeli army is in-and-out of the
zone as often as they like murdering Palestinians and destroying homes, schools
water and sanitation facilities, sewage pumping station and agricultural crops.
The
entire population of the Camp is on the verge of starvation. Thanks to a
vicious policy of collective punishment imposed by the Israeli fascist regime
and unconditionally supported and financed by the U.S. and the European
governments (EU) in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth 1949 Geneva
Convention The policy of “putting the Palestinians on a diet but not to make
them die of hunger” is criminal even by the Nazis’ standard. Some
prominent Jews have likened the Camp to the
Warsaw Ghetto under the Nazis. It is worse than a Concentration Camp under the
Nazi; it is a normalised (in Western conscience) Concentration Camp.
A recent
report by the UN, Gaza
in 2020, argues that the Camp will no longer be ‘a liveable
place’ in 2020. Another report, Gaza’s Children: Falling Behind by the
UK-based charities, Save the Children and Medical Aid for Palestinians found
that, “anaemia [a dietary iron deficiency] is widespread in the Camp, affecting
over two-thirds of infants, 58.6 per cent of schoolchildren, and over a third
of pregnant mothers”. In addition, more than ten per cent of Palestinian children under 5 have
had their growth stunted by malnutrition. According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), the most serious consequences of anaemia, including “poor
pregnancy outcome, impaired physical and cognitive development, increased risk
of morbidity in children and reduced work productivity in adults. Anaemia
contributes to 20 per cent of all maternal deaths”. As Anne McClintock, a
Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison writes; “Death by siege is
like death by cancer; it is slow and invisible. Death by siege wreaks its havoc
over generations. What is called “slow violence” is the “attrition devastation”
of society that takes place gradually over time and space. “Slow violence may
be less visible, less media-sensational but enacts a toll no less lethal and
lasting for being slow and out of sight”. Like the policy of Nazi Germany,
“Israel's policy is that of a monstrous sadist, a sadist who finds hideous
pleasure in subjecting its victims to pain that lasts a lifetime … This is evil
of an unusual kind, evil that delights in its own cruelty, evil that seeks no
end other than the satisfaction of watching its victims suffer for years on
end, with a glimmer of hope offered now and then -- but solely for the purpose
of making the suffering to come even more painful”, writes Arthur Silber.
In his
recent visit to the prison camp, Noam Chomsky, a long-time supporter on the
state of Israeli and a well-known critique of U.S.-Israel terror against the
Palestinians observed: "It’s kind of amazing and inspiring to see people
managing somehow to survive, as essentially caged animals, and subject to
constant, random, sadistic punishment only to humiliate them". To add to
the daily suffering and misery of life in the Camp, Israeli forces often turn
the Camp into a war zone, committing massacres of Palestinian civilians in
broad daylight.
The Camp is constantly and savagely bombed by the
Israeli army and air force. Attacks were generally
indiscriminate by U.S.-made fighter jets (F-16s bombers), Apache helicopter
gunships, unmanned drones and tanks throughout the Camp even in the very densely
populated areas of the Camp. The Camp remains devastated by these attacks.
On 14 November 2012 the Camp came under indiscriminate
and savage Israeli bombardments. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed and
wounded in the one week of the barbaric attacks. The Israeli army started the
massacre by killing three Palestinians, including a 20-year old mentally-ill
young Palestinian man, Ahmed al-Nabaheen, a 13-year old boy, Hamid Younis Abu Daqqa, who was playing
football in his Real Madrid shirt inside the Camp, and the unprovoked
assassination of the Palestinian leader Ahmed al-Jabari. It was one of
countless cease fire violations by Israel to perpetuate violence. At least
160 Palestinians were massacred, including 40 children in a week of
indiscriminate and barbaric attacks. “We’re seeing the killing of pregnant
women, elderly men, and children. It’s very, very grave situation here in Gaza,
with practically every part of the Gaza strip receiving either Israeli
airstrikes or naval shelling. We’re seeing tanks amassing on the border”, said
Harry Fear, an activist and filmmaker in Gaza (Full interview on Press TV, 17/11/2012). When the
International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) starts indicting Israeli
criminals?
In winter 2008/2009, the Camp came under heavy and
indiscriminate barbaric attacks by the Israeli army and air force. Entire
neighbourhoods, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, universities, mosques,
civilian buildings, important archives, humanitarian foundations, civilian
infrastructure, including sport facilities, libraries and cinemas were
destroyed. At least 1,400 Palestinians were murdered during the 3-week aerial
and ground attacks. More than 300 were children. The death ratio was 111 dead
Palestinians to one dead Israeli Jew. Over 6000 Palestinians were injured,
including 1,500 children. There “is no immunity for anyone in Gaza” every
prisoner, men, women and children, is a target, said one of Israel’s fascist
henchmen, Yitzhak Aharonovitch. Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warned
that the Palestinian prisoners were “bringing on themselves a bigger Shoah [Holocaust],
because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate”. According to Amnesty International, “Israel
had committed war crimes and other serious breaches of international law” and
its leaders should be held accountable for war crimes.
The deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians
has nothing to do with Israel false propaganda of “self-defence”. The deliberate attacks on Palestinian
civilians intended to generate mass public pressure on the HAMAS government.
The strategy has failed because of Palestinian Sumud. Israel’s pretext of “self-defence” is outright immoral and criminal
and cannot be justified as one of self-defence. Israel is an occupying power
and has no right to self-defence whatsoever. The best self-defence strategy for
Israel is to end its brutal oppression and murderous occupation of the
Palestinian people and their land. The Palestinian people have a legitimate right to
resistance to defend themselves in response to repeated Israeli criminal
aggression. In fact, the Palestinians left with no choice but to engage in
armed resistance despite the disproportion between the Israeli army and the Palestinians.
For its
war crimes against the Palestinians, Israel is rewarded handsomely. The U.S.
taxpayers provide Israel with more than $3 billion to upgrade Israel’s military
and develop its industry while millions (50 million depend on food stamps) of
Americans cannot afford to buy food. The EU governments pay for the building of
illegal Jewish colonies (settlements) on stolen Palestinian land and investing
heavily in Israeli projects and Israeli industries. Europe is Israel’s largest
export market for products produced on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
Furthermore, major imperialist organisations like the United Nations, the
International Criminal Court, the World Bank, etc. have always endorsed and
defended Israel’s aggression and brutal treatments of the Palestinian people.
People often compare Israel with Nazi Germany. The
comparison is inaccurate and benefits Israel. Unlike Israel, Germany was involved in war
against formidable armies, including the world’s greatest army, the Red Army.
By contrast, Israel’s war has always been between a major military power and a
defenceless people, mostly unarmed men, women and children. The idea that “the mighty Israeli army has
defeated the Arab/Muslim army” is outright Zionist propaganda. There isn’t an
“Arab/Muslim army” and there has never been one. In 1973, Israel was on the
brink of complete annihilation by the Egyptian army. It was only saved by the
U.S. and its allies. Unlike Nazi Germany, Israel possesses an arsenal of
several hundred nuclear bombs, biological and chemical weapons. According to the recent Global Militarisation
Index (GMI) released by the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC),
Israel tops the list of the world's most militarized
nations today. Israel has the world’s fourth or fifth largest army and the most
criminal army. In addition, Israel is unconditionally supported and
armed by the world’s most violent “superpower”, the United States and European
governments. While
Nazi Germany had committed heinous war crimes, it is also true that Nazis’ crimes
have been amplified and exaggerated to justify the creation of Israel and Israel’s
war crimes against the Palestinian people.
In addition, mainstream media (Western capitalist
media), including the Internet, print media (e.g. the Murdoch Press, New York
Times and the Washington Post) and TV channels are owned and controlled by
wealthy pro-Israel Zionist Jews. The pro-Israel propaganda today is unique in
the history of propaganda. Every Western propaganda organ (BBC, ABC, CNN, New
York Times, Fox News, etc.) is fiercely pro-Israel and anti-Palestinians. For
decades, Israel is portrayed as a victim “defending itself” from (defenceless)
Palestinians who have been depicted as “militants”, dehumanised and stripped of
their basic human rights and identity. Today’s pro-Israel Western propaganda is
far more sophisticated and brutal than Nazi propaganda. Indeed, the Nazis
learnt the art of propaganda from the Americans. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany
Minister of Propaganda was fascinated by American propaganda. There are
thousands of Goebbels-like
(or better) propagandists working for Israel today. You
never hear or read that the Israeli army forced Palestinian children to act as
human shield in war against Palestinian fighters. The BBC will never tell the
British public that the Israeli army provokes children to run, so they can
practice shooting (murdering) them. Indeed, British viewers of BBC news believe
the Palestinians are the oppressors and illegal occupiers of their own country,
observed John Pilger. It is the publicly-funded most vicious and false
propaganda organ in history.
The primary aim of Western propaganda is to
manipulate public opinions and deflect attention away from Israel’s war crime.
At the same time demonising and blaming the Palestinian resistance for the
suffering of the Palestinian people. The long finger is always pointed at the
Palestinians and Arabs in general – never at Israelis and Jews. Western
politicians, pundits and journalists have always backed Israel’s war crimes and
Israel’s (religio-fascist) Zionist ideology. A case in point is the Dutch fascist Leon de Winter who
proposed adding chemicals to Gaza’s water supply to sterilize the population. If some
western politicians, pundits and journalists don’t support Israel, they remain
silent and indifferent to Israel’s war crimes. In other words, they are complicit
in Israel’s war crimes.
Furthermore, Israel can count on the support it
received from the major powerful and wealthy Jewish organisations, the
pro-Israel Jewish Lobby. From the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and
American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Israel’s attack dog in the
U.S to the Brooking Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations, Israel is
fiercely defended. The submission to Israel must be total. Congressmen have a
duty to put the interests of Israel before U.S. interests. Anyone, even the
President, who dares to utter a single word critical of Israel’s terror, will
commit political suicide. Israel demands and gets blind obedience, nothing else.
What Israel
calls “peace”, is a smokescreen used by Israeli leaders to manipulate public
opinions and justify violence. They have been fooling the world into thinking
that Israel wants peace “without conditions”, but with Zionist conditions. In
reality, real peace is Israel’s worst nightmare. History has shown that Israel is the enemy of
peace and has sabotaged every hope for peaceful settlement. For Israelis, peace
means: “We will demolish you homes, destroy your farm, kill or imprison you
children and take your land and water to build colonies for Jews and you should
remain silent. You have no right to protest”. In fact most people who have been
murdered by the Israeli fascist regime were known to have advocated peace with
Israel, including the murder of Ahmed al-Jabari. He was killed as an act of
provocation two days after he had negotiated a truce in Cairo on behalf of the
resistance movement, HAMAS. Truce means diplomatic process with HAMAS which is
against Israel’s violent ideology. Furthermore, the so-called “Palestinian
Authority” – installed and financed by the U.S., EU governments and Israel – is
not about peace; it is serving Israeli propaganda. The PA or the “Vichy Regime”
has always been about managing the Israeli occupation on behalf of Israel and
the U.S. It has no power to negotiate peace on equal terms and the PA depends
on Israel for survival.
Gaza is a reminder of fascism a foretaste of war
crimes. “… Gaza is something of a laboratory for observing an obscene of
dignity … The constant surveillance from the sky, collective punishment through
blockade and isolation, the intrusion into homes and communications, and
restrictions on those trying to travel, or marry, or work make it difficult to
live a dignified life in Gaza”, writes Ranjaie Batniji, a physician at Stanford
University (The Lancet, 380, August
2012).
Finally, in March 2010, Martin Van Crevel, professor of military history at
Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an adviser to the Israeli military declared: “We [Jews] possess several
hundred atomic warheads and rockets … most European capitals are targets of our
air force … The
Palestinians should all be deported ...Two years ago, only 7 or 8 per cent of
Israelis were of the opinion that this would be the best solution, two months
ago [January 2010] it was 33 per cent, and now, according to a Gallup
poll, the figure is 44 per cent”. The Israeli threat is against
the world in general and Arab nations in particular.
From its inception more than six decades ago,
Israel has employed a fascist ideology in its occupation of Palestine and
dispossession of the Palestinian people. Today, Israel is the greatest threat
to world’s peace. Israel’s aim is to dominate the region by violence, turning
Arab nations into prison camps and depriving them of life and dignity. Arabs leaders
are wrong to concede defeat. They should make serious efforts to develop robust
deterrence capabilities against Israeli aggression. Only the defeat of Israel will
advance world’s peace and regional stability.
Ghali Hassan is an independent
political analyst living in Australia.
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