Before I start this I feel the need to qualify a few things. A lot of this is based on my own experience in Israel last year and on what I saw & experienced in Bethlehem and Jericho. The photos I've included are ones I took myself. I would hope that I could never be accused of being anti-Semitic, indeed, most of my former students would agree that this would be far from the case. Given all of this, I would like to comment on the situation as it seems to be at the moment in Gaza. I realise that I’m probably laying myself open to some serious verbal abuse here.
One thing I realised last October was the serious discrepancy between what is happening over there and the way things are reported in by European/British/American media outlets. I feel that the same thing is happening again. It is impossible in any situation to justify the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians by any side in a conflict. Given the long standing treatment experienced in Gaza and the rest of Palestine at the hands of the Israeli government it does not surprise me that some resort to violence. While I was in Bethlehem I saw firsthand the humiliating treatment of Palestinians at check points. We were told a story by a Coptic Christian living in Bethlehem; he had lost his family olive grove because it was the wrong side when the wall went up. His young daughter had leukaemia. They were entirely dependent on hospitals in Israel but frequently found to impossible to access treatment because they could not get through the checkpoints; they were at the whim of the staff manning the checkpoint that day. (The photo above shows the wall around Bethlehem). This is daily life for many in Palestine. I didn’t go to Gaza where the day-to-day situation is so much worse.
The ongoing mistreatment of the Palestinian people has led to the growing frustration within their community. In 2005 Israel sealed off Gaza and in 2006 imposed a full blockade of the strip. This was supported by the western powers. In 2008/09 it was Israel that broke a six month cease fire with Hamas and in three weeks around 1400 Palestinians were killed in the shelling, around 300 of those were children. 13 Israelis were killed during this time period. The UN report into this incident (the Goldstone Report) condemned the Israeli action as a war crime but Britain, America etc did nothing. Amnesty also reported on this action, known as Operation “Cast Lead” pointing to the use of F-16 bombers which “targeted and destroyed civilian homes without warning, killing and injuring scores of their inhabitants while they slept”. A link to their report from December 2009 is below.
In November 2009, President Obama appealed to the Israeli government to stop their settlement expansion in places like East Jerusalem. This was ignored and America did nothing. They also control the water supplies to West Bank communities. Desmond Tutu has compared the daily situation for the Palestinian people to life under apartheid in South Africa.
Hamas as an organisation was really aggressive during the 1980s and Israel still quotes example of their rhetoric from this period to justify actions against them. No doubt Hamas still has questionable people within its organisation that are prepared to resort to despicable tactics. However, since they became part of the political process in 2006 the language they use has mellowed significantly. One thing Britain learned in Ireland was that, if you really want peace then you have to include people like Martin McGuiness & co who had clear and well proven connections to the IRA. Although the situation in Ireland is far from resolved the inclusion of people like McGuiness did help lead to a way forward for both sides; it enabled them to step back from the brink. Israel needs to learn from this. In the words of the West Wing "you negotiate with the mail man if you have to". The deliberate targeting of civilians is wrong. But until both sides step back then this will continue as both sides seek revenge. Since 1948, when Britain infamously left “the key under the doormat” Israel have been carrying out a policy which has added up to a slow process of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians. Perhaps membership of the UN will offer them some protection but this will not happen if the US continues to stand in the way as they publicly did in 2011 when they spoke out against the Palestinian request to join.
There are two sides to every story and Israel has been the victim of counter strikes and attacks. However, they cannot continue to treat people in the way the Palestinians are treated on a daily basis and claim that their hands are clean. There are two sides to every story and the British media mainly only shows the one.
Let the accusations begin…
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