During the past week the Israeli Government has ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza into southern Gaza. Those who did not move were given a salutary lesson. The Al-Ahli Arab hospital was bombed last Tuesday, October 17, causing the death of nearly 500 persons, comprising patients, medical staff and persons seeking safety. Many were women and children. The fact that southern Gaza, to which northern Gazans were told to move, is also being continuously bombed, suggests that Israel wants to herd all the Gazans into an even more confined space because it would be easier to slaughter them all, or to force them all across into Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing. Israel has denied the bombing of the Al-Ahli Hospital and has blamed it on Islamic Jihad, a Gaza militant organization. This denial is part of the information war that Israel wages against Palestinians. By the time the truth that Israel carried out the bombing becomes accepted, as Al Jazeera has clearly revealed, the anger would have died down.
The evidence that has accumulated so far about Israeli intentions to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing on people who they have held in the Gazan prison and periodic mass executions by bombings and invasions, is not far-fetched. On October 9 Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the war would ‘change the Middle East.’ The bombings and killings in Gaza will not ‘change the Middle East,’ but the levelling of Gaza and the expulsion of its population to Egypt certainly will. Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, does not recognize a distinction between civilians and combatants. He said “it is an entire nation out there that is responsible.” Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, has described Gazans as “human animals.” In the meantime, Israel has subjected the 17 square miles of Gaza to 6,000 bombs weighing 4,000 tonnes in the past week, killing over 3,000 persons and wounding thousands. This is the amount the US dropped on Afghanistan in one year at the height of the war. Hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and homes have all been bombed and over one million people have been displaced.
After 17 years of total siege, including food restrictions, Hamas finally managed to tear down the walls that kept Gazans captive. The spectacular operation by approximately 1,500 Hamas members, was accompanied by massacres of civilians, that sent much of Israel and the world into grief and anger, not comprehending that people who are subjugated and massacred with no hope of relief, are likely to lash out in the most violent of ways. The argument that this is no justification for the commission of atrocities is valid. But those who make the argument can point to no offer of hope ever received by the oppressed people of Gaza, or Palestine for that matter, and should also direct their views to Israel. The events have punctured Israel’s much vaunted reputation as having a competent military and as having one of the world’s best intelligence services. It also punctured Prime Minister Netanyahu’s claim to fame as the Israeli politician who has brought to and maintained security for Israel. Whatever the outcome of the genocidal operation in Gaza, he is expected to pay the political price and eventually go to jail if found guilty for the crimes of corruption of which he is charged.
The collusion of the West with Israel in its oppression of Palestine since 1967 is also supporting its plan of genocide against the Palestinians today. President Biden has rushed to Israel to lend support for its bombing campaign. So have Prime Minister Sunak and EU Head Ursula von der Leyen. They justify their support of Israeli acts under the cover of its right to defend itself while closing their eyes to Israel’s genocide and oppression of Palestinians. While the West is backing Israel, the Arab streets are in flames and exploding. The autocratic rulers of Jordan, Egypt and the West Bank were forced to decline a meeting with President Biden which was designed to give the latter the appearance of being even-handed. The hope for even-handedness could not survive the West’s support for Ukraine against Russia’s occupation, while condoning Israel’s occupation of Palestine. In the meantime, like in relation to Russia, the West will not be able to look forward to any support from the South. Also, Biden’s plan to permanently smother the dream of a Palestinian homeland by orchestrating a deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel whereby Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel in return for arms and nuclear energy, has been delivered a body blow from which it is may not recover. The Palestinians will live to fight another day.
Israel can be stopped. The campaign against its planned ethnic cleansing/genocide of Gazans is being opposed by mass action all over the world and particularly in the West. Such movements are already developing and accelerating despite attempts to restrict or ban pro-Palestinian activities in France, Germany and other countries. Sufficiently widespread mass demands for a ceasefire, the restoration of supplies to Gaza, the end of the blockade and progress towards a two-state solution are the means by which Israel can be stopped.
(This column is reproduced with permission from Ralph Ramkarran’s blog, www.conversationstree.gy)
