Israeli Onslaught on Palestinians, a Case of Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide

Rabat – I have no idea how representative or not the following synthesis is of the attitudes and stances of the average Israeli, but I know that it does reflect what a few have expressed both in writing and during oral exchanges in various occasions.

It takes many Israelis a long time before they find out that what they have been taught to call Israel is actually the land of Palestine. They always learn that they are squatting the land of others by the force of a five millennia legend. There is always a point in their lives in which they learn that the land they have been raised to call home has actually been emptied of its owners to be granted to them in exchange of a pardon of countrymen and countrywomen who have failed to protect them and spare them the humiliation, the violence, the exactions, the sufferings and the pains of their own kin.

For some, this awareness is sudden and a result of a discussion they have, a debate they attend, a book they read, a moment they take to reflect and think about the history of their environment or when they have shot their first Palestinian kid dead.

They start thinking about why their country is always at war, why they always have to meet stones thrown at them with rubber and live bullets, tear gas and artisanal rockets that hardly leave scars on walls with heavy shelling and bombardments by MAG3 war planes and remote controlled rockets that destroy whole neighborhoods and kill kids, women, elderly and young indiscriminately by the hundreds. There is always a time they start wondering why the isolated act of an individual is met with collective punishment, and why whenever conciliation is at hand their rulers find ways of returning to war and decline the offer of peace.

They cannot pretend that when stones and fire are not being exchanged, Palestinians are left alone as the news of assassinations, arrests, fake trials, homes being destroyed has become part of their daily lives. They cannot pretend that Palestinians are left to themselves, as they know that the blockade they are enforcing on them is starving them, killing them for lack of medicine, clean drinking water and construction material to build shelters for their families. They cannot deny that they have contributed to building the wall that practically locks Palestinians in the biggest prison in the world.

They know that their governments do everything they can to weaken the Palestinian Central Authority, to provoke Palestinians and complain that because of such weakness they have to further isolate Palestinian populations, intensify surveillance in cities and villages, install check points, and enact laws that allow police and army to shoot at the slightest suspicion. This is how they justified disconnecting Jerusalem from the rest of Palestine and invading the holiest mosques of Muslims.

They know that war is a way of governance of their rulers and that they advertise it only when it serves some strategic purpose and to apply more heat on allies who dare start thinking about trying to convince them to give up some land or some authority to Palestinians.

War is a necessity for Israeli governments to maintain pressure both on its own people and on its allies. It has no end, and they know it. They know that stabbing an Israeli, an alleged kidnapping of a kid or two or any act they refer to as terrorism are but pretexts to launch wider and more comprehensive campaigns to grab more lands and justify the building of new illegal settlements.

They also know that war is increased constraints on the lives of Palestinians, fewer resources for them, less air to breathe and less options but to fight for their lives. Waging war against Palestinians is meant to draw them further into the final whirls of the decimation cycle.

It is an error to think that war ever stops on Palestinians, even when you don’t hear about it. They are maintained in a continuous state of war. As a matter of fact, it would also be an error to think that Palestinians are engaged in the war Israel forces on them.

They just do not have the means to. They are no match to the might of the Israeli army. One should never forget that Israel has one of the mightiest armies of the world, has chemical and atomic bombs, war planes, drones, tanks, etc. and that Palestinians do not have a standing army and fight essentially with stones and homemade weapons. War would not be the most appropriate word. Whenever the two are engaged, it is a case of cleansing and genocide.

Israelis are not dummies. They are smart, intelligent and highly educated. They know that their media not only manipulates information and distills news, images and discourse to the rest of the world, but it has made sure the most influential of it has been appended to it. They know the names of who owns the International channels and publications and they are aware of how the loyalty of TV anchors is ensured. They are more aware of what is taking place around them than anyone else in the world.

It does not take them a long time to understand that terrorism should be an appropriate term for what is happening around them. When it is the Israeli who kill, it is called self defense and when Palestinians do it, it is called terrorism. Where the French resistant committing terrorism when they were targeting the Germans who had occupied their land. Why were those welcomed as heroes and the Palestinians as terrorists?

Israelis know better than anyone else that, unlike what their governments are circulating, Palestinians are far from being radicals and that those who fell into radicalism have been pushed into it by the behavior of Israel and the unfair treatment of the whole issue by leading world powers.

Like everyone interested in world affairs, Palestinians, for example, hear US presidential candidate Secretary H. Clinton abound about how alarmed she is by the “attacks against Israelis” without ever having one single word about the scores of Palestinians who have been killed in the same period nor about the fact of occupation, which is at the origin of the whole issue. For many, she, just like most US politicians, simply adopts the position of US neo-conservatism, which coincides with that hard-line Zionism, which in turn, corresponds to the exact positions of Israel.

Israelis can also but know that like all men and all people, Palestinians will never give up their fight for freedom and dignity and that the longer it takes the more generous they will become with their lives. Giving their lives for their country will become not an act of heroism or patriotism but a simple matter of fact task everyone has to undertake when it is their turn. As long humiliation continues, as occupation has not ended and convincing evidence has not proven that Israel has not given up its colonial project, resistance will continue and will take new forms.

Palestinians have rights, and every Israeli knows them. They want to go back to their homes, and International law has recognized it for them. They complied and accepted resolutions of the United Nations, but Israel never abides by international law. They just cannot and will not stay in exile for five thousand years. Jerusalem is their capital city and they will not accept another one. They have the right to have a State and if that does not materialize, risks are that peace will never be reached.

Now, what do Israelis do with this awareness? Many make huge efforts to believe that they do know. Many have serious mental health issues, breakdowns and depression. Others resist this knowledge, reject it and hold fast to the only alternative they can see namely, hate Palestinians and fight them because they need an enemy to justify their own existence.

The International community has a responsibility. A heavy one as it is at the origin of the problem, it has created it, in fact. Arabs and Muslims talk more than they act. One wonders whether their decisions belong to them.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy