The Bleeding Palestine:

Support for the Brutalities & Approval of the Occupation

Dr Firoz Mahboob Kamal

http://www.drfirozmahboobkamal.com/english-articles/1239-the-bleeding-palestine-support-for-the-brutalities-a-approval-of-the-occupation.html

Outsourcing the occupation

Palestine is bleeding. Its people are the worst victims of one of the most brutal occupations in the whole human history. They are suffering for more than hundred years. Firstly, at the hand of the British colonialists; and now under the occupation of Israeli aggressors. Under the Israeli occupation, Palestine has turned to a huge concentration camp for its native people; but only with a difference. The concentration camp in Nazi Germany was very short lived. It quickly ended with the end of World War II. But the Israeli concentration camp is showing no such sign of ending in foreseeable future; rather, showing rejuvenated life with more brutalities. Colonisation always brought brutal occupation, oppression, exploitation and deaths in the occupied lands of Asia and Africa. But the colonial occupation of Palestine has taken a different and more awful route. Half of the people in any of the former colonies were never forced to live in the refugee camps of other countries. Nor were their land and assets confiscated by the thuggish immigrants from other corners of the planet to build their own empire –as have been done in Palestine by the Jewish immigrants.

Although, the western colonisation has ended in other countries of the world, but it has become a permanent feature in Palestine. Such sustained brutalities of deaths, oppression and eviction from homes didn’t happen in other Asian and African colonies. To understand all such horrific dynamics of Israeli occupation, one must understand the history of creation of Israel and the status of Israel in the western psyche. It needs to be understood that Israel is not an ordinary state like other states on earth. The leaders of Israel take it as a political cum ideological mission to uphold the crime and culture of the colonial occupation of Palestine that were started by the British in 1917. Because of the Israeli presence, although the British colonial era has officially ended in 1948, the brutality of colonial occupation and its horrific crimes and culture still thrive in the land of Palestine.

After the catastrophic damage to its defence, economy and manpower by two World Wars, the morally and economically depleted British imperialists were compelled to outsource the task of colonial occupation cum subjugation of their former colonial subjects to their faithful clients. At this critical point of history, the Jews emerged the new opportunists to carry the colonial flag. Moreover, in occupied land of Palestine, the British and the Jews had some shared civilizational cum political objectives. In the holy land of Jerusalem, they had the common vision and objective to leave no space for the Muslims. Moreover, because of their close affinity towards the western ideology, culture and values and derp incompatibility with the Muslims, the Jewish people could quickly become the natural and perfect surrogate of the imperialists to serve those shared objectives.

Therefore, in the occupied land of Palestine, the illegitimate birth of Israel in the womb of British colonialism was deemed essential not only to address the political cum ideological objectives of the Jews, but also to sustain the political, economic, and military agendas of the western imperialists. In the west, there exists so much consensus on such assumed utility of Israel that all the western countries were very quick to give legitimacy to the illegitimate birth of Israel in 1948. Now they are pressurising all the Muslim countries –especially the Arab countries, to do the same. Since the British didn’t conquer Palestine from any Jewish people, they didn’t have any moral and legal authority to hand over any part of this occupied land to the Jew. The legality of ending the colonial occupation could only be accomplished by returning the whole Palestine to its original Arab owners -whose land they occupied in 1917; and not to the immigrants from other continents. Since that hasn’t been done by the British, the whole creation of Israel on occupied land stands on the premise of such blatant illegality. No amount of military might or political manoeuvring can remove such a blemish of illicitness of Israel’s creation. In fact, here lies the original pathology in the whole Arab-Israeli dispute.

Israel can occupy any amount of land by military might, but can’t establish its legality. The original crime against the Palestinians was committed by the British colonialists. And it was supported by other imperialists of the west. Now the same former colonial powers stand as the sole protector of Israel. The presence of Israel in Muslim Middle East, in fact, looks like a graft of an incompatible foreign organ inside an immune-competent body. Such inherent incompatibility of the Jews against the Muslim polity is working as the incurable barrier to reach any peace deal. No amount of negotiations or dropping bombs can destroy such defensive immunity of the Muslims. Signing of any number of accords by any high ranking Palestinian leader or by any Arab king can’t substitute the ratification by the whole ummah –the real stakeholder of the holy land. Such a deadlock indeed works as the crux of the whole problem in the Arab-Israel conflict. Defending the holy land is so integral part of Muslim faith that resistance against Israeli occupation of Palestine is never going to die out. Ultimately, the ongoing incompatibility inside Muslim heart land is destined to eat away this colonial implant. Thousands of nuclear bombs couldn’t protect the dissolution of Soviet Union. Israel may have hundreds nuclear warheads, too; but it survives on life-long life-support from the west. Therefore, how such a country can survive better than Soviet Union? 

The shared ideology & the complicity in crime

The Israelis have strong ideological affinity with the western imperialists. Occupation, colonisation, subjugation and breaking backbone of the Muslims are parts of the same shared ideology. Because of that, the government of Israel can easily work in tandem with the imperialists to occupy any Muslim land and destroy its cities. For the same reason, the western countries can’t tolerate any harm, defeat or condemnation of Israel in any national or international forum. This is why, the US government repeatedly applies its veto power in the UN Security Council to protect Israel from any condemnation even for its worst war crimes. In the war of 1973, when the Israeli defence was near to collapse, the USA made a quick dispatch of advanced weapons to Israel. Because of such complicity in crime, while the Israeli Army kills people and flatten cities in Gaza or in occupied West Bank, the US-led western coalition provide the full political, diplomatic and military support. Because of such close partnership, Israel survives as the biggest military power in the whole Middle East. It indeed works the extension of the west’s own garrison inside the Muslim heartland. The western countries also bear the whole economic cost of this imperialistic enterprise of warfare inside the Muslim Middle East. This is why, Israel is the recipient of the largest US aid since its creation. Therefore, fighting against Israel tantamount to fighting against the whole western imperialist block.

The western powers never hide their shared values, common objective and strategic alliance with Israel. Rather, on the pretext of such shared values, the US President, the UK Prime Minister and the French President, the German Chancellor and other key western leaders reiterate their firm commitment to do everything for Israel’s security. These western leaders argue that defending Israel means defending western values and objectives. So, the security of Israel is indispensable to them –even at the huge cost of life, liberty and homeland of the native Muslims. On 10^th of December, while addressing a press conference with the visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benzamine Netanyahu, the French President reiterated the same western doctrine vis-à-vis  Israel. Because of such extreme pro-Israeli bias, the survival issues, the security issues and the basic human rights issues of the Palestinians do not matter at all to the western leaders.

In fact, the USA President and other western leaders never worked as the neutral negotiator; they role has only been the defence lawyer for Israel. They plead Israel’s case not only on a negotiating table with the Palestinians, but also on other international stages. Such a pro-Israeli bias should have spontaneously disqualified them to be an arbitrator. But still they display a hypocritical posture in the name of so-called “peace deal” between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Such a peace-making stance has always been a deceitful ploy only to buy time for Israel to build thousands of new homes for the Jewish people illegally settled in the occupied land. This way, the USA and its western ally have wasted more 70 years of the Palestinians in the name of so-called negotiation. Hundreds of hours were spent to make accords in Camp David and Oslo only to secure legitimacy of Israeli by the Palestinians. They never wanted any peace for the Palestinians; this is why they oppose return of the Palestinian refugees to the homeland. They wanted peace and security only for Israel so that it doesn’t need any war for its sustenance. In the past, the colonialists also wanted similar peace in the occupied countries. They wanted such peace only to give long life to their colonial occupation, exploitation and subjugation without any war. Israel has taken the same route.

But the question arises: what are those western values that Israel and the western powers uphold in the heart land of Islam? Certainly, these are not the democratic values. If these were the democratic values, why the western countries collectively boycotted the elected Hamas government in Palestine? And, why they embraced the leaders of a military coup that ousted the first elected government in Egyptian history of Dr Morsi? If the so-called western values had an iota of concern vis-à-vis the basic human right issues, why these western countries sell arms to the most brutal and autocratic regimes in the Middle East? However, the values that the western powers promote in the Third World countries are not unknown to any student of colonial history. These are the values of brutal occupation, colonisation, mass killing, genocidal ethnic cleansing and apartheidism. Because of such wicked immorality, they could easily think that the native Palestinians are not entitled to have the dwelling space in Palestine. As if, their destiny is only to be evicted from their ancestral homes and live in refugee camps in other countries. The US-led western powers call it peace making effort to support such pure immorality in the Middle East. Does it need any other proof to show how morality has died in their souls? Because of such death of morality they could kill 75 million people in two World Wars, send million people to gas chambers, drop nuclear bombs and could totally destroy dozens of Syrian and Iraqi cities. They call it western values! And Israel takes tremendous pride to be the part of the same values.

President Trump’s crime

By declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, President Donald Trump has violated the international law. Such violation of a statutory law is itself a huge crime. He must know that Jerusalem doesn’t belong to Israel; it is the indispensable part of Palestine -illegally occupied in the war of 1967. Hence the city is legally bound to return it to its original owner –as recognised by the UN resolution. As per international law, no country is entitled to make any forcefully occupied city its own capital. But the USA administration is not ready to accept such historical truth; hence, work as a bully to recognise Jerusalem unilaterally as the Israeli capital, President Donald Trump claims that by recognising Jerusalem as the Israeli capital he has only recognised the reality on the ground.

Mr Trump conveniently forgets that this false reality was created by Israel by its illegal occupation. No one has the right to recognise such a manufactured reality on the ground; it is the violation of international law. Such recognition generates further illegal occupation. This is why, Mr Trump’s announcement received world-wide condemnation. Mr Trump has crossed the red line only because of extreme love for Israel. In doing so, he didn’t bother about law or morality. Moreover, the question arises, ISIS could also create a new and huge reality by establishing an Islamic State with a territory more than double the size of England. It survived more than two years, and had the potential to survive, too. Why that reality was annihilated by wholesale destruction of historic cities like Mosul, Raqqa, Ramadi, Deirazour, Tikrit, Kobani, Fallujah and many others? President Saddam Hussein also created ground reality by occupying Kuwait. Why that reality wasn’t recognised? If the US-led coalition could take military action to end the reality of ISIS and Saddam Hussein, why the Palestinians shouldn’t enjoy the same right to undo the illegal reality of Israel? Why such double standard against the Palestinians?

Does Muslim life matter?

In so-called western values, the Muslim life does not matter. This is why Israel –the west’s most favourite protégée, has been given the unfettered right to practise all forms of colonial crimes in occupied Palestine. Only in the year of 1948, Israel forcefully evicted 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. Still, they are not allowed to return back. The western leaders didn’t have any soul to condemn such a robust and heinous crime. While the Palestinians are still languishing in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordon, Syria and other countries, Israel is building thousands of luxury apartments for the new Jewish arrivals from other countries. Many Palestinian villages were destroyed to create more space for them. Such Israeli crime does not touch the western mind; they are only worried about the peace, comfort and security of the Jews.  What could be the worst form of colonial occupation than this? Because of such shared colonial values, the Israeli leaders stand so close to the heart of their western leaders. Therefore, illegal occupation by Israel becomes not only lawful to them, but also a rallying point of celebration. This is why, the illegal creation of Israel was given the prompt legality in 1948 by the western countries and by the UN - the restrictive club of the western powers.  Now, they stand solidly behind Israel to defend the occupation. The US President Donald Trump used the same colonial logic to give legality to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The colonial occupiers have their own value-adding narratives to describe even their worst despicable deeds. So, they describe the most inglorious act of colonial occupation as most glorious act in history. Hence a notorious robber like Robert Clive of East India Company could be appreciated as Lord Clive in their midst. They have narratives also to describe their enemies. This is why, while the colonial occupation of Palestine receives legality in the west, but any honest effort to end such illegal occupation is condemned as terrorism. In the past, the same narratives were used by the colonialists in other occupied lands. Those who fought against the French occupation of Algeria were labelled as terrorist; but the genocidal killing of about 1.5million Algerians by the occupying forces of France was never mentioned as a war crime. The same colonial values and narratives are currently used to describe the situation in Palestine. Hence the children those throw stones to the Israel’s occupying Army is labelled as terrorist and taken to the prison. But those who keep the illegal occupation, kill the Palestinians and turn their houses to rubbles are acquitted from any crime.

The USA, the UK, France, German and many other countries show their only concern for the security of Israel. Hence, they could embrace the Israeli leaders when the Israeli Army kills the Palestinian children for shouting and throwing stones against the well-armoured Israeli soldiers. For so-called security of the Israelis, the whole West Bank and Gaza have become an open-air prison. The Israeli Army doesn’t bother to flatten even the hospitals, the schools and the mosques. To encounter the ineffective missile of Hamas, the USA and its ally even supported Israel’s 50 days bombing campaign in Gaza. They keep their eyes closed while Israel makes nuclear bombs; but do advocacy to make the whole West Bank and Gaza as demilitarised zones. As if the Palestinians do not need any protection or security. Israeli government talk about peace and security; but these are only for the Jews. The Palestinians have no space in that premise; they are given place only in the concentration cells. The long and very tall concrete walls crisscrossing through Palestinian farms and residential areas have effectively made the whole occupied land into virtual prison cells. In prison camp, no one can enjoy any liberty. Even Yasser Arafat –the late leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) didn’t have the liberty to call a doctor, go to hospital or meet a friend. In his last days of life, Yasser Arafat was kept in captivity in his official residence in Ramallah. He needed Israeli permission for any move. At the end, he died a mysterious death –suspected to be a homicidal poisoning.

So in occupied Palestine, the life of the Jews are flourishing at the expense of total dehumanisation of the Palestinians. The western leaders call it a flourishing democracy in the Middle East. Such democracy flourished in occupied South Africa for the white supremacists. In the midst of such flourishing democracy of occupied Palestine, the native Palestinians are deprived of all basic human rights. They are destined to survive only at the mercy of the Israeli Army. When they applied their democratic rights in 2006 to elect Hamas as the ruling party of Palestine that democratic choice was not accepted by the western leaders. As if, reflection of people’s choice is not enough to be a democratic. It must express the choice of Israel and its western cronies. To kill its credibility, Hamas is labelled as an extremist organisation. As if, Hamas has done more destruction, more killing, more bombing and more genocide than the Israeli Army. Thus, the democratic functioning of occupied Palestine was dismantled by Israel and its western cronies. In 1982, Israeli Army with its Lebanese Christian surrogates massacred thousands of Palestinian men, women and children in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut suburb. But such cold-blooded butchering of innocent people didn’t make Israel a terrorist entity. To ensure the security of Israel and to increase sufferings of the Palestinians, they do not allow to build any sea port in Gaza and an airport in the West Bank. Such seaport and airport are deemed unthinkable luxury in a prison. Even the apartheid regime of South Africa did turn the whole country to such an open-air prison for the native people. Ironically, such a worst form of inhumanity is embraced by the western leaders as the western values. 17/12/2017

Firoz Kamal