David Vs Goliath

While most of the world seems to have their attention fixed on the World Cup, the final of which is to be played later today, there has been a terrible and unforgivable act of aggression — terrorism even — by Israel against the Palestinians. In a so-called retaliation for the seizure of one Israeli soldier, Israel has gone mad, bombing civilian targets in Palestine, invading large areas of Palestinian territory and kidnapping almost half of the elected Palestinian Cabinet.

A very large part of the reason for this total violation of international norms is that Israel is attempting to get rid of the Hamas government in Palestine. Let us be clear about this situation. The Hamas political organisation did not seize power by force of arms, though they have long waged an armed struggle against Israel as an occupying power of Palestinian land. And yes, Hamas has a political position of non-recognition of Israel, as Israel does not recognise Hamas. Hamas also condones the use of tactics like suicide bombers who explode their bombs resulting in many civilian casualties. This latter tactic is clearly an act of terrorism for violence in a military struggle cannot and should not be used against civilians.

But if this tag of “terrorist” holds for Hamas’ position on suicide bombers, does this not also apply to Israel which engages in systematic bombing of civilians in Palestine? I will return to this in a moment. Regardless of the political position of Hamas, however, one has to recognise that they came to office in Palestine in a free and fair election. So Israel is in fact attempting to remove a duly elected government!

And it is not only Israel. The US and the European Union have essentially adopted the same position. As far as these governments are concerned Hamas must be forced into recognising Israel and if it doesn’t then it must be forced out of power. The US and the EU are not concerned at all about the fact that Hamas is an elected government. For them democracy is not really all that important. What matters instead is that those who hold office are going to toe the line. And so they stopped all aid and financial assistance that had been previously committed to Palestine. It was a siege by another name - a blockade not dissimilar to that against Cuba.

Let us remember that when Yassar Arafat was in charge of the Palestinian Authority, he was deemed to be supporting violence against Israel. And so Israel attacked the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, effecting a virtual siege against Arafat and keeping him imprisoned in the building. The signals were clear from the US and others. As long as Arafat is in charge we shall have nothing to do with him, nor shall we engage in any serious discussions with the Palestinians on the issue of peace. And with this strategy Arafat became weaker politically. But the outcome was not what the US, the EU and Israel wanted or expected.

Instead of the emergence of a moderate political force in Palestine, in the aftermath of Arafat’s death has come Hamas. A Hamas that is far more militant and under-girded by religious fundamentalism than Arafat’s Fatah party. Now that the US, the EU and Israel created the conditions for the emergence of Hamas as the legitimate political leadership in Palestine, these powers want to reverse the outcome of the democratic elections! And they are prepared to go to any lengths to achieve this objective. In order to properly describe the reality of suffering created by the bombings and other acts of state sponsored terrorism, I have quoted excerpts from an article that I received by email. It is by Virginia Tilley and it appeared in the journal Counterpunch dated June 30th.

“For over in Gaza, one appalling act must now eclipse all thoughts of “road maps” or

“mutual gestures”: on Wednesday, Israeli war planes repeatedly bombed and utterly demolished Gaza’s only power plant. About 700,000 of Gaza’s 1.3 million people now have no electricity, and word is that power cannot be restored for six months.

It is not the immediate human conditions created by this strike that are monumental. Those conditions are, of course, bad enough. No lights, no refrigerators, no fans through the suffocating Gaza summer heat. No going outside for air, due to ongoing bombing and Israel’s impending military assault. In the hot darkness, massive explosions shake the cities, close and far, while repeated sonic booms are doubtless wreaking the havoc they have wrought before: smashing windows, sending children screaming into the arms of terrified adults, old people collapsing with heart failure, pregnant women collapsing with spontaneous abortions. Mass terror, despair, desperate hoarding of food and water. And no radios, television, cell phones, or laptops (for the few who have them), and so no way to get news of how long this nightmare might go on.

But this time, the situation is worse than that. As food in the refrigerators spoils, the only remaining food is grains. Most people cook with gas, but with the borders sealed, soon there will be no gas. When family-kitchen propane tanks run out, there will be no cooking. No cooked lentils or beans, no humus, no bread the staples Palestinian foods, the only food for the poor. (And there is no firewood or coal in dry, overcrowded Gaza.)

And yet, even all this misery is overshadowed by a grimmer fact: no water. Gaza’s public water supply is pumped by electricity. The taps, too, are dry. No sewage system. And again, word is that the electricity is out for at least six months.

The Gaza aquifer is already contaminated with sea water and sewage, due to over-pumping (partly by those now-abandoned Israeli settlements) and the grossly inadequate sewage system. To be drinkable, well water is purified through machinery run by electricity. Otherwise, the brackish water must at least be boiled before it can be consumed, but this requires electricity or gas. And people will soon have neither.

Drinking unpurified water means sickness, even cholera. If cholera breaks out, it will spread like wildfire in a population so densely packed and lacking fuel or water for sanitation. And the hospitals and clinics aren’t functioning, either, because there is no electricity.

Finally, people can’t leave. None of the neighbouring countries have resources to absorb a million desperate and impoverished refugees: logistically and politically, the flood would entirely destabilise Egypt, for example. But Palestinians in Gaza can’t seek sanctuary with their relatives in the West Bank, either, because they can’t get out of Gaza to get there. They can’t even go over the border into Egypt and around through Jordan, because Israel will no longer allow people with Gaza identification cards to enter the West Bank. In any case, a cordon of Palestinian police are blocking people from trying to scramble over the Egyptian border—and war refugees have tried, through a hole blown open by militants, clutching packages and children.

In short, over a million civilians are now trapped, hunkered in their homes listening to Israeli shells, while facing the awful prospect, within days or weeks, of having to give toxic water to their children that may consign them to quick but agonizing deaths.”

The Israelis must be held accountable in the International Courts for this war crime, a veritable act of genocide. The Bush regime and the EU must account for their role in supporting Israel. And our own Prime Minister needs to tell us why of all places he visited, he went to Israel, a state that is guilty of such atrocities.