Palestine's Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood

This is a guest post written by Mustafa Barghouthi, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative. Barghouti is a former secular candidate for President of Palestine and has been a strong advocate of non-violent responses to Israeli occupation. Barghouti is thought by many to be a leading contender in the next Palestinian presidential election. Perspectives have also been solicited from various national leaders and incumbent Knesset leaders in Israel.

Here is a link to an interview that Steve Clemons did with Barghouti in July 2008 regarding Barack Obama's trip to Israel and Palestine.

Palestine's Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood

The Israeli campaign of 'death from above' began around 11 am, on Saturday morning, the 27th of December, and stretched straight through the night into this morning. The massacre continues Sunday as I write these words.

The bloodiest single day in Palestine since the War of 1967 is far from over following on Israel's promised that this is 'only the beginning' of their campaign of state terror. At least 290 people have been murdered thus far, but the body count continues to rise at a dramatic pace as more mutilated bodies are pulled from the rubble, previous victims succumb to their wounds and new casualties are created by the minute.

What has and is occurring is nothing short of a war crime, yet the Israeli public relations machine is in full-swing, churning out lies by the minute.

Once and for all it is time to expose the myths that they have created.

1. Israelis have claimed to have ended the occupation of the Gaza Strip in 2005.

While Israel has indeed removed the settlements from the tiny coastal Strip, they have in no way ended the occupation. They remained in control of the borders, the airspace and the waterways of Gaza, and have carried out frequent raids and targeted assassinations since the disengagement.

Furthermore, since 2006 Israel has imposed a comprehensive siege on the Strip. For over two years, Gazans have lived on the edge of starvation and without the most basic necessities of human life, such as cooking or heating oil and basic medications. This siege has already caused a humanitarian catastrophe which has only been exacerbated by the dramatic increase in Israeli military aggression.

2. Israel claims that Hamas violated the cease-fire and pulled out of it unilaterally.

Hamas indeed respected their side of the ceasefire, except on those occasions early on when Israel carried out major offensives in the West Bank. In the last two months, the ceasefire broke down with Israelis killing several Palestinians and resulting in the response of Hamas. In other words, Hamas has not carried out an unprovoked attack throughout the period of the cease-fire.

Israel, however, did not live up to any of its obligations of ending the siege and allowing vital humanitarian aid to resume in Gaza. Rather than the average of 450 trucks per day being allowed across the border, on the best days, only eighty have been allowed in - with the border remaining hermetically sealed 70% of the time. Throughout the supposed 'cease-fire' Gazans have been forced to live like animals, with a total of 262 dying due to the inaccessibility of proper medical care.

Now after hundreds dead and counting, it is Israel who refuses to re-enter talks over a cease-fire. They are not intent on securing peace as they claim; it is more and more clear that they are seeking regime change - whatever the cost.

3. Israel claims to be pursuing peace with 'peaceful Palestinians'.

Before the on-going massacre in the Gaza Strip, and throughout the entirety of the Annapolis Peace Process, Israel has continued and even intensified its occupation of the West Bank. In 2008, settlement expansion increased by a factor of 38, a further 4,950 Palestinians were arrested - mostly from the West Bank, and checkpoints rose from 521 to 699.

Furthermore, since the onset of the peace talks, Israel has killed 546 Palestinians, among them 76 children. These gruesome statistics are set to rise dramatically now, but previous Israeli transgressions should not be forgotten amidst this most recent horror.

Only this morning, Israel shot and killed a young peaceful protester in the West Bank village of Nihlin, and has injured dozens more over the last few hours. It is certain that they will continue to employ deadly force at non-violent demonstrations and we expect a sizable body count in the West Bank as a result. If Israel is in fact pursuing peace with 'good Palestinians', who are they talking about?

4. Israel is acting in self-defense.

It is difficult to claim self defense in a confrontation which they themselves have sparked, but they are doing it anyway. Self-defense is reactionary, while the actions of Israel over the last two days have been clearly premeditated. Not only did the Israeli press widely report the ongoing public relations campaign being undertaken by Israel to prepare Israeli and international public opinion for the attack, but Israel has also reportedly tried to convince the Palestinians that an attack was not coming by briefly opening crossings and reporting future meetings on the topic. They did so to insure that casualties would be maximized and that the citizens of Gaza would be unprepared for their impending slaughter.

It is also misleading to claim self-defense in a conflict with such an overwhelming asymmetry of power. Israel is the largest military force in the region, and the fifth largest in the world. Furthermore, they are the fourth largest exporter of arms and have a military industrial complex rivaling that of the United States. In other words, Israel has always had a comprehensive monopoly over the use of force, and much like its super power ally, Israel uses war as an advertising showcase of its many instruments of death.

5. Israel claims to have struck military targets only.

Even while image after image of dead and mutilated women and children flash across our televisions, Israel brazenly claims that their munitions expertly struck only military installations. We know this to be false as many other civilian sites have been hit by airstrikes including a hospital and mosque.

In the most densely populated area on the planet, tons upon tons of explosives have been dropped. The first estimates of injured are in the thousands. Israel will claim that these are merely 'collateral damage' or accidental deaths. The sheer ridiculousness and inhumanity of such a claim should sicken the world community.

6. Israel claims that it is attacking Hamas and not the Palestinian people.

First and foremost, missiles do not differentiate people by their political affiliation; they simply kill everyone in their path. Israel knows this, and so do Palestinians. What Israel also knows, but is not saying public ally, is how much their recent actions will actually strengthen Hamas - whose message of resistance and revenge is being echoed by the angry and grieving.

The targets of the strike, police and not Hamas militants, give us some clue as to Israel's mistaken intention. They are hoping to create anarchy in the Strip by removing the pillar of law and order.

7. Israel claims that Palestinians are the source of violence.

Let us be clear and unequivocal. The occupation of Palestine since the War of 1967 has been and remains the root of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Violence can be ended with the occupation and the granting of Palestine's national and human rights. Hamas does not control the West Bank and yet we remain occupied, our rights violated and our children killed.

With these myths understood, let us ponder the real reasons behind these airstrikes; what we find may be even more disgusting than the act itself.

The leaders Israel are holding press conferences, dressed in black, with sleeves rolled up.

'It's time to fight', they say, 'but it won't be easy.'

To prove just how hard it is, Livni, Olmert and Barak did not even wear make-up to the press conference, and Barak has ended his presidential campaign to focus on the Gaza campaign. What heroes...what leaders...

We all know the truth: the suspension of the electioneering is exactly that - electioneering.

Like John McCain's suspension of his presidential campaign to return to Washington to 'deal with' the financial crisis, this act is little more than a publicity stunt.

The candidates have to appear 'tough enough to lead', and there is seemingly no better way of doing that than bathing in Palestinian blood.

'Look at me,' Livni says in her black suit and unkempt hair, 'I am a warrior. I am strong enough to pull the trigger. Don't you feel more confident about voting for me, now that you know I am as ruthless as Bibi Netanyahu?'

I do not know which is more disturbing, her and Barak, or the constituency they are trying to please.

In the end, this will in no way improve the security of the average Israeli; in fact it can be expected to get much worse in the coming days as the massacre could presumably provoke a new generation of suicide bombers.

It will not undermine Hamas either, and it will not result in the three fools, Barak, Livni and Olmert, looking 'tough'. Their misguided political venture will likely blow up in their faces as did the brutally similar 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

In closing, there is another reason - beyond the internal politics of Israel - why this attack has been allowed to occur: the complicity and silence of the international community.

Israel cannot and would not act against the will of its economic allies in Europe or its military allies in the US. Israel may be pulling the trigger ending hundreds, perhaps even thousands of lives this week, but it is the apathy of the world and the inhumane tolerance of Palestinian suffering which allows this to occur.

'The evil only exists because the good remain silent'

From Occupied Palestine. . .

-- Dr. Mustafa Baghouthi

Comments

[Magenta]

Israel violated the ceasefire first by attacking civilians. Arabs have the right of self-defence too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/04/israel-gaza-hamas-hidden-agenda

"...the truce was thrown into jeopardy in November when the Israeli military killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid on Gaza... Between June 2007 and June 2008, Israeli attacks killed 68 Palestinian children and young people in Gaza...

In February, an Israeli missile killed four boys, aged eight to 14, playing football in the street in Jabalia. In April, Meyasar Abu-Me'tiq and her four children, aged one to five years old, were killed when an Israeli missile hit their house as they were having breakfast. Even during the ceasefire, Israel killed 22 people in Gaza, including two children and a woman...

But Israel did not end the siege that was wrecking the economy and causing desperate shortages of food, fuel and medicine... "When the Israelis pulled out... We didn't expect that we would have to beg to allow food in," she said.

Yossi Alpher, a former Israeli Mossad official and an ex-adviser on peace negotiations said the blockade of Gaza is a failed strategy that might have strengthened Hamas. "... It's collective punishment, humanitarian suffering... "I think people really believed that, if you starved Gazans, they will get Hamas to stop the attacks. It's repeating a failed policy, mindlessly."

[Magenta]

The United Nation Archives stated clearly that most of the Jews in Palestine in the 1940s were illegal immigrants from Europe whose ancestors converted to Judaism and do not have any ancestral ties to the lands in Middle East.

[rightsize2005]

why is there a disclaimer at the top of this article?

[tehuti]

Good question.

[Ergon]

Why is Israel afarid to admit journalists?
Why did they ram the cabin cruiser Dignity as it sought to bring food and medical supplies to Gaza?

[MX]

To quote a post on another message board this week:

Unfortunately we have an intractable problem.

One side:

has all the power,
controls almost all the land,
controls all the food and medicine,
oversees the incarceration of 20% of the world's refugees
does 80% of the killing

The same side fervently believes they are the victims.

To quote Seamus Milne today:

"During the last seven years, 14 Israelis have been killed by mostly homemade rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, while more than 5,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel with some of the most advanced US-supplied armaments in the world. And while no rockets are fired from the West Bank, 45 Palestinians have died there at Israel's hands this year alone."

[Artemis34]

The UN site says:

'Wheat supplies scheduled to arrive in Gaza the 9-10 December were unable to enter due to rocket fire, hence the mills have run out of flour and UNRWA has been forced to suspend food distribution.'

http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2008/gaz_18dec08.html

So, rocket fire has interrupted food aid from the UN. I'd recommend a cease fire so that the UN can resume aid.

[Magenta]

Israel's actions are endangering its people, not protecting them. Come right down to it, the Hamas don't even have a real army or modern weapons while being forced to live in a prison-like existence at Gaza Strip where Israel cotrols all entry points and has launched economic seige against it.

This will only provoke Hamas to respond violently.

[adrienrain]

Israel's actions are deliberate. Israel needs those few terrorists, needs a hungry, weak Gaza and hopefully West Bank as well, in order to justify its continued stealing of Palestinian land. The last thing on earth Israel wants is a peaceful, 2-state solution and all of its actions prove it.

[miguelobrien]

Don't get me wrong; while a junior at university , I was engaged to a Jewish girl, wore a mezuza, and wanted to join a Kibbutz in Israel. Personal and historical events changed my mind. Best idea for peace I've heard so far is, move Israel to Texas: plenty of room and those Texicans surely won't mind, having only recently stolen their land from the Comanche. [Crawford the new Jerusalem?]

As the Old Kentuckian liked to say, "We come from a long line of stinkers; you see what Cain did to Abel.

[cjacks]

If the Muslim states really wanted to do something, embargoing the west would probably cause them to stand up and pay attention. The last one occurred when the US was at its peak of production, 35 years or so later that’s far from true. And given the condition of the economies of the west, the impact would be much greater. Of course as a US citizen I wouldn’t be very happy but this situation has cost far too many souls. Indeed it threatens all life on earth. It wouldn’t have to last any longer than Israel continues stripping Palestinians of their human rights.

[gakabani]

Palestine if the only HOPE for democracy in Arab world, that is why no one supports it. No Arab GOVERNMENT will support the Pals, no one. They are democratically dangerous. Most governments in the Arab world are corrupt, including Egypt, Saudi, Jordan, etc Trail the money my friend.

[smoovejef]

Problem- Israeli/Palestinian conflict regarding occupation status and establishment of a recognized Palestinian state.

Solution- Reestablish borders of pre- 1967 conflict. Establish joint UN board to implement bilateral agreements regarding trade, cross border entry for work, rebuilding assistance and joint renunciation of terroristic acts and propaganda.. Military tribunal to hear charges against combatants. Maintain level of unarmed UN peacekeepers to monitor cease-fire. If cease-fire broken, armed UN forces will take over monitor duty until stable cease-fire for 180 days.

NO SETTLEMENTS TO BE ESTABLISHED IN FOREIGN TERRITORY WITHOUT PRIOR HOST COUNTRY AND U.N. APPROVAL.

And a team of U.N. negotiators that will not back down from either of them. And make the negotiations PUBLIC via live internet feed. Man is supposed to be a civilized species; time we started acting like it. Both will have to give up things, but peace is worth it.

[Artemis34]

Surrounding Arab countries could engage in trade, allow border crossing for work, provide building assistance...

Many people from around the world are working in countries like the UAE as well. It isn't a homeland, but it is income, if poverty is actually a concern.

There are options for the Palestinians to build the world they want to see, but I wouldn't be waiting for Israel to them them do it.

[adrienrain]

Yes - and once the Palestinians leave, they can never go back. They, unlike Jews born in any nation in the world, have no right of return. Too bad.

[juanjo]

Sorry kids but i do not buy it. Hamas may have been democratically elected but so were the Nazis and George W Bush. Hamas has one stated goal since its inception and it has never wavered from that goal, namely the destruction of Israel and the death of every Jew in Israel. It is indeed sad and unfortunate that civilians are dying in the current struggle between the Hamas government and Israel. But this is a war between a group dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the Israeli people. Hamas makes no distinctions between civilians and Israeli soldiers and hides its arms and soldiers among the civilian population in Gaza. They apparently have chosen to support Hamas in its efforts and are now paying the price for that support.

[justicia]

To suggest that the people of Gaza deserve what they are getting for daring to support Hamas is callous in the extreme. Faced with limited options, and frustrated with the inability of successive predecessors to gain any improvement in their conditions, the Palestinians chose Hamas. Alas, their decision failed to pay off. Israel, with the unwavering support of the world's superpower, simply labeled Hamas 'terrorists' , and seized this opportunity of yet another excuse to inflict more pain and suffering on all residents of Gaza. Although it can do damage equivalent to a gnat's capacity to harm an elephant, Hamas has no capacity to destroy Israel; rather, as the current slaughter shows, Israel is capable (and willing to) of eliminating countless Palestinians and inflicting untold suffering on those who survive the bombs it rains down. While Hamas has been intransigent and bellicose, its behaviour is comparable to that of a trapped creature. As Baghouthi and others have shown, this is a long-running chicken and egg story. Israel has repeatedly shown bad faith, finding fault with every Palestinian leader and using the impasses to seize more land, destroy more homes and crops, displace more people, and expand its lush settlements while Palestinians huddle in appallingly squalid and hopeless conditions. Mahmoud Abbas is currently the good guy, but the situation of the people of the West Bank, while not currently awash in blood, is hardly an inducement for Gazans to embrace Israel's directives and reject Hamas.

[freerovingbovine]

Yes, Hamas has no ability to destroy Israel, yet but their intention is clear. Israel has the ability to destroy Palestine yet has not. Proving it is Israel who seeks a peaceful settlement, not those that teach their children from day one to strap on bombs in the name of Allah.

[jimthefireman]

There is much wrong with Israel's actions in Gaza in particular and in all the area it occupies in general. Much of the Western world although appreciative of the danger and the dillema that Israel finds itsself in, rightly condemns Israeli actions and Israel pays a political, military and financial price for that.

Having said that, it is completely undeniable that rockets are indiscriminatly fired into Israel on a regular basis, and there is ample evidence to suggest that Hamas not only tolerates this, but in some cases actively supports it.

Israel's response may be disproportionate, but it has few other options available. We are not talking about a harmless game of football here, people are dying and Israeli citizens expect their government to strike back hard, regardless of how impossible it may be to ensure that only people guilty of firing rockets are killed or injured.

We watch from afar, hoping and praying that each side will find leaders less prone to political grandstanding and deadly subterfuge. Few from outside would not feel that regardless of the innocents killed and injured in the process, Israel has a right to respond to the rocket attacks.

[morcutt]

A couple of options I can think of for Israel to start working with Palestine might be to dismantle the checkpoints they have put up preventing people from getting to school and work, and to stop building settlements on Arab lands. That seems to be very troublesome for peaceful coexistance.

[Artemis34]

Palestinians should make their own opportunities. Make work and schools in Palestinian communities outside the checkpoints.

[JessWonderin]

Seems "they" were right . . . didn't take long for the enemies of AMERICA to challenge our new Administration . . . too bad WE paid so much "foreign aid and military assiatance" to support this 'challenger" for so long . . . .

[Hablan]

Sorry but Mr. Barghouthi is wrong.
The cease fire was broken in the first week
Exept that hamas did not take responsibility for it and blamed other
groups for it in Gaza.
Hamas is in charge in Gaza, nobody else, they are resposible.

[CaptainHowdy]

So, by your logic, the Democratic party was responsible for Timothy McVeigh's actions?

LOL...

[adrienrain]

Actually, under all human rights accords, the people of Gaza have a right to rebel against their illegal occupiers.

[kassandrasduplex]

The Lavon Affair. Long history of Israeli aggression.

[kassandrasduplex]

Some posters here need to re-read the essay. Israel is and has been for 60 years the aggressor.

[kassandrasduplex]

And shall we not forget that Hamas was DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED, Abbas was installed as a puppet.

[Artemis34]

29 November 1947 - Partition of Palestine

On the day after the [UN] vote, a spate of Arab attacks left seven Jews dead and scores more wounded. Shooting, stoning, and rioting continued apace in the following days. The consulates of Poland and Sweden, both of whose governments had voted for partition, were attacked. Bombs were thrown into cafes, Molotov cocktails were hurled at shops, a synagogue was set on fire.

Fighting began almost as soon as the plan was approved, beginning with the Arab Jerusalem Riots of 1947.

Per Wikipedia.org

[baffy]

I wonder who wrote the nonsense on Wikipedia?
The Irgun and co were acting as terrorists before the UN even voted. You may recall that a couple of them became Israeli PM's. After the Arabs rejected the creation of the state (Why wouldn't they? It was their land that was being given away.) fighting broke out and 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and their land never to return i.e. they and their decendants have been in refugee camps for 60 years.
Israel immediately expanded it's borders by 22% and has since occupied Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan.
All kind of makes you wonder what their goals are. MORE LAND and LESS ARABS.
Sadly for you, facts are facts.