Image: archivenet In 2012 we posted an article that asked the question: Do exiled Tibetans and in particular their Administration, not have more in common with Palestine and its cause, than with Israel? At that time the Palestinian enclave...
Image: archivenet
In 2012 we posted an article that asked the question: Do exiled Tibetans and in particular their Administration, not have more in common with Palestine and its cause, than with Israel? At that time the Palestinian enclave of Gaza was being bombed by Israeli jets and 11 years later here we are again!
What has not been written about the Israel-Palestine conflict? After decades of killing, torture, arrests, discrimination, apartheid, and a militarized colonization, the dictionary must surely be exhausted? You would be right in thinking so, but recent events in that region have raised up once again immense questions on human rights, the struggle for freedom and cultural and national identity.
Of course the narrative is unfortunately somewhat distorted, what may appear as factual and objective news is adulterated with politics. Then there are various agenda being played out so that the information presented has to be decontaminated by a careful and critical examination. There are however events taking place which require little interpretation, these elicit deep and shocking reactions.
The bloody carnage, arbitrary killings of civilians, reports and images presented across media places a person into condition of emotional reaction and judgment. Under such circumstances it is a predictable outcome that blame is apportioned, especially when reports are framed into an overly simplistic and warped image of innocent victim and brutal terrorist.
Image: archivenet
This is where a cool and careful reading of history is required, what are the threads and background which contribute to such an interaction of struggle and mayhem? After all the reported killing spree waged by Palestinians against Israeli civilians did not occur in a vacuum, there are pre-existing factors which fuel such murderous outrage. This is not justification, but a matter of record.
As is the harrowing fact that, while the orchestrated narrative has people decrying the horrors of Israelis killed by Palestinians, the prison of Gaza (which is effectively what it is) home to some 2 million Palestinian women, men and children, is suffering wave-upon-wave of aerial bombing.
Deaths and injuries are mounting, yet the same Governments which extol their citizens to ‘Stand With Israel’ are virtually silent as the Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, described the Palestinians of Gaza as “human animals”. Who, in revenge, will be denied water, food, energy and fuel supplies! Source: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-fighting-human-animals-defence-minister
Such dehumanizing language and a siege that will inflict untold misery and suffering; raising concerns of disease and further deaths, is a communication one would not be surprised to see issued by a totalitarian regime. Imagine the Western response if Russia employed the same descriptions of Ukrainians and besieged Kiev; to deny its population food and water. Would there be a silence? Yet Israel’s horrific excesses and violations are given a free-pass by the USA, Canada, European Union Australia and Britain.
Image: The Globe Post
This most recent outbreak of violence, murder, deadly retaliation is not, as you are being gaslighted to accept, a conflict between Israel and Hamas, it is a conflagration rooted in a nation colonized, occupied, denied, tortured and brutalized since 1948. Until Palestine and its just cause for national freedom is genuinely recognized and respected, with serious negotiation to reach accord set in motion the potential for further uprisings remains.
While Palestinians are violently denied their lands and homes, oppressed, and treated like criminals resentment and hatred will burn brightly. Until it is our lives under the suffocating oppression of a foreign military occupation we can never be entirely sure how we would respond to the sense of rage, injustice and hatred that no doubt springs from existing under such misery. Would we have the ethical fortitude to peacefully endure decades of such an existence?
