WRITTEN BY Anis Hamadeh
With amazement the world public has noticed in recent weeks that war crimes had apparently been committed in Gaza. (1) Even Israeli soldiers and military staff now report about their own cruelties against the Palestinian population, cruelties that we do not even know from movies. (2) The stylish T-shirts, that promote the shooting of pregnant Palestinian women by indicating that in this way you can kill two human beings with one bullet, appeared strange to people abroad, too. (3) Moreover, the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Israeli foreign minister horrifies the public. (4) There would be further reasons to be disgusted, like the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, the plans for expanding the illegal settlements, some killings, the abduction of Gazan fishermen and so on, but these details do not enter the global discourse, because, well, because they never did. The question is: how genuine is the amazement about what happened in Gaza?
Did anything change in Israeli politics? Are those really completely new phenomena, suddenly coming up in the discourse, out of thin air? Or do we only witness the consequences of a continuing strategy that had begun more than sixty years ago? There are good arguments for the latter alternative, especially when you look at the facts. Let us, for example, revisit the year 1948 …
Deir Yassin and the Human Rights
1948 was a special year. It was marked by Plan D, the Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine. (5) Jewish troops expelled about 700,000 people from the indigenous population of the country and killed many of the men in combat age. Even in 1936, after the Palestinian revolt, the Palestinian elite had been persecuted. This was shortly after the first Palestinian party was founded which was to represent the interests of the native population in the two fronts struggle against the British occupation and the Zionist conquerers. “Punishments” like the demolition of residence houses were firstly used by the British and were adopted later by the Zionists. In 1948, several Jewish terror groups were known, like the Haganah, Irgun, the Stern Gang, Lechi and others. They killed, took the land away from the local people and later contributed several prime ministers who were accepted by the world public without any difficulty – very similar to today.
Don’t think that the pogroms against the population of Palestine during the execution of Plan D were secret. When the future Prime Minister Menachem Begin had the Arab village of Deir Yassin attacked on April 9 and many of its inhabitants killed (certainly including children and women) in order to terrorize and horrify the people, this was covered in the world press. Begin defended his deed with a typical Israeli bonmot: “The massacre of Deir Yassin not only had its justification – without the ‘victory’ of Deir Yassin there had never been a State of Israel.” (6) Four years later, the same Begin attempted to kill the German chancellor Adenauer (7) and in 1978 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
When Deir Yassin went through the press, the horror about this deed was huge, very similar to today after Gaza. Everybody was surprised and disgusted, even perpetrators like Haganah and the Jewish Agency. A pattern came into being, the pattern of shooting and crying, i.e. killing with subsequent lament. This has worked: there have never been any consequences for Israel. The killings, the expropriations and the humiliation of the local population until today belong to the salient characteristics of Israeli politics. Nothing has changed.
At the end of 1948, large portions of Palestine were “Palestinian-free”, much more than the designated part of the land that the international community and the UN had granted to the Jews (with the explicit demand that the local people be treated well). We remember that the international community decided to give some land to the victims of the European genocide against the Jews and everybody was happy with the Palestine decision … except, of course, the people who lived in the region, because it was their land according to all international and logical standards. Weapons and myths (8) silenced them.
1948 was also the year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In December, when Israel was established on the blood of the Palestinians, the world celebrated the Human Rights and did not care about Palestinians. The world wanted human rights with exceptions, but this did not work. Now, sixty years later, we begin to understand that.
The Aryan state did not work, let’s try a Jewish state …
During its history, Israel has continued the Deir Yassin policy, and today there is less than 10 or 5 percent of the land left to the Palestinians. On global refugee days people do not talk about Palestinians, although they are the biggest group of refugees in the world with far over 5 million people. This works because Palestinians (and Arabs and Muslims in general) are needed to fill the role of the anti-Semite which is substantial to the Zionist ideology.
It is, as if the world said: the Aryan state did not work, let’s try a Jewish state … Is it really surprising that we witness stunning similarities between the two today? (9) The Israeli population today is exactly confronted with the “final solution” subject now, because Israel cannot make peace on the one hand (this would imply justice for Palestinians, an unthinkable idea in Israel’s decision-making) and needs to end the conflict, on the other. With extremely violent politicians like Netanyahu and Lieberman the “transfer” plan comes closer, an idea to just expel Palestinians en masse like in the old days. Of course, if this happens, it will not mean peace, but more violence and even stronger resistance. So let your imagination fly and think about what a final solution could look like.
It is not known how many Palestinians must die before the world recognizes that they are human beings and not anti-Semites. Right now the killing goes on, the Gaza peak did not evoke a real criticism yet. Israel is encouraged to go on to see how far it can go. Do not think that this was it, do not think that Israel will now see that it cannot go on like this. The Zionists have learned that they can do anything with impunity. On March 22, 2009, a total of 14,000 tons of new US weapons arrived in Ashdod on the German cargo ship “MS Wehr Elbe” (owner: Oskar Wehr KG, Hamburg). (10) With these weapons alone, tens of thousands of people can be killed.
The Jewish state will collapse, like the Aryan state has collapsed, because both have the seed of self-destruction in them. Both are clearly racist, violent and expansionist in nature. This time it hits Arabs and Muslims instead of Jews. For over sixty years the international community has been blind to this fact, although it is so obvious that ordinary people know it and talk about it – not politicians or journalists or others who need the public.
Countries like Germany even have a “reason of state” to secure the persecution of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, calling it a “historical responsibility”. There is no other possible reason to introduce a reason of state if it was not for something highly illegal that needs to be hushed up.
We may still save the rest
The repressive tolerance of Western countries like Germany and the USA makes it possible to write all this down, because it usually has no “harmful” effects towards change. A lot of people think that – unlike the Nazi state – the Zionist state cannot be overcome by violence and thus will prevail. This is an error. Racist regimes of this ilk end up in self-destruction if they are not overcome from the outside. What is important now: we can still save lives. We cannot save the about 1,500 dead in Gaza anymore. But we may still save the rest.
At the end of May, the Free Gaza Movement will organize a flotilla of boats, the Hope Fleet, to break the siege of Gaza. You can support them. (11) The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is present in Palestine to shield Palestinians from the Zionist killers (12). You can support them and save lives. This is a critical phase and every hand is needed, every tongue and every cent. Boycott Zionists now! Take it seriously now! Boycott non-Israeli journalists and politicians who support the killing! Argue with them! Support those Jews who are committed against violence and for peace in Palestine. For the sake of humanity and of yourself: do not take part in this murder.
NOTES:
1. E.g. in the German “Spiegel”, “Israelische Armee: Gaza-Veteranen schockieren mit Aussagen über wahllose Morde.” by Ulrike Putz, Beirut, http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,614286,00.html
2. See e.g. ‘Shooting and crying’, von Amos Harel, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072475.html
3. See e.g. http://news.sky.com 20 March 2009, “Israeli Army T-Shirts Mock Gaza Killings”, by Dominic Waghorn (URL too long)
4. Guardian 25 March 2009, “Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s shame”, by Neve Gordon, http://www.redress.cc/palestine/ngordon20090327
5. Ilan Pappe, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”, 2006
6. Markus A. Weingardt (2002): Deutsche Israel- und Nahostpolitik. p. 33
7. See e.g. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 June 2006 “‘Im Auftrag des Gewissens’. Begin war Drahtzieher des Adenauer-Attentats”, www.faz.net/s/RubFC06D389EE76479E9E76425072B196C3/Doc~E35BBCD5A37DA47809AD4F6A865C6332B~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
8. Myths like “A land without a people for a people without land”, “Arab aggressions/ David vs. Goliath”, “anti-Semitic Arabs/Muslims”, Palestinian Nazi cooperation (it was far less effective than Zionist Nazi cooperation), Arab military superiority (Jordan was the only country with a decent army then, and the Jordanian king was successfully promised a part of the prey, namely the West Bank); also see John Rose (2004), “Myths of Zionism”
9. This comparison is still forbidden in the mainstream, “for the security of Israel”, but it is as obvious as it is founded and necessary. See my essay “The Second Case”, Feb. 5, 2009, http://www.anis-online.de/1/essays/23.htm
10. Amnesty International, Press Release, April 1, 2009, United States Delivers Massive New Weapons Shipment to Israel, Confirmed by Pentagon, Says Amnesty International, http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20090402002&lang=e (NB: The German government is co-guilty, cf. (in German): http://www.radio-utopie.de/2009/01/23/Bundesregierung-dementiert-Wissen-ueber-Waffentransport-nach-Israel-Chronologie-der-Wehr-Elbe-Affaere)
11. See press release and updates at www.freegaza.org
12. http://palsolidarity.org
SOURCE: http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/804-shooting-and-crying-nothing-new-since-1948–or-is-it
We Write What We Like 
You write: “When the future Prime Minister Menachem Begin had the Arab village of Deir Yassin attacked on April 9 and many of its inhabitants killed”
Actually, he had no pre-knowledge of the attack. It was all in the hands of the local Irgun commander. The village itself had been overrun with Iraqi irregulars and with the villagers, snipings began directed at Jewish targets, specifically the neighborhood of Bet haKerem and Bayit Vegan as Davar reports in its April 4th edition, page 4. So, once again, in targeting Jewish civilians, the Arabs opened themselves up to be attacked in response.
At least you didn’t write that the inhabitants were massacred because when the attacking force of Irgun and Lehi suffered 5 dead and over forty injured, it was obvious that a battle took place. The original number of 254 casualties was later reduced by the Bir Zeit University research team that interviewed the survivors and couldn’t find more than 110 killed. Two residents, interviewed for the BBC’s “Fifty Years War” program admitted that claims of atrocities were made up by local Palestine Arab Higher Committee publicists.
There is an Arabic saying that goes like this ( darabani wa baka, wa sabaqani wa shtaka). Translated ( He beats me and he cried, and he was the first to complain). Until now the Palestinians failed to deal with the issue of the Israeli/Jewish crimes. The Jews made it a point to go after ALL those who committed murder and crimes against the Jews including prison guards and they succeeded. So far the Palestinians have done nothing, ZERO.
Sami;
How can the Palestinians “go after” those (zionists) who perpetrated these vicious crimes against them? At this point, Palestinians have NO power, whatsoever. They have nobody on their side to see that this is done. Even the UN has backed down and allowed the zionists to decide whether or not to look into these war-crimes (the fox guarding the hen-house, managed by more foxes)..
How can Palestinians— how can ANY non-Jew ensure that Israeli zionist war-mongers are tried and/or imprisoned for these crimes?? Nobody who can do anything cares enough to DO anything, after all!
Maybe the U.S. will finally place some conditions on the thusfar unquestioning support (esp financial and military support) of Israel? And, maybe I am simply dreaming?
It’s horrific what ziionists have done for decades. Of course, it has only gotten worse in the recent past. Or, perhaps, in this age of the internet, we simply KNOW more?
Prior to the recent “cast-lead” genocide, I understood that the Muslims MUST be at fault for their predicament. I then began to investigate outside of the U.S. news; I subscribed to Jewish Voice for Peace and other similar sites, and I learned that it truly IS the zionists perpetrating these horrors. Amazing what a little knowledge will do.., eh?
AnneBeck. I tell you how. Arafat and the PLO paid a business broker, a friend of Suha Arafat the sum of $ 28 millions in compensation for a a promised commission on a telecom deal. The man who got the $28 million was non other than the man who was in charge of the Lebanese Phalange forces as they went ahead massacring Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila. Also the PLO for an on behalf of Abu-Alabbas, paid the family of Klinghoffer, the American Jew who was overthrown overboard in his wheel chair from the Achilles Loro. The US courts are holding the sum of $140 millions of the PLO money in escrow to satisfy the claim of the estate of an American Jew killed in Jerusalem. The PLO and its leadership have the hundreds of millions to spend on its leadership, from multi-million dollar homes to expensive cars to first class travel and hotels, to Cuban cigar at a cost of $25 each, to paying some $60,000 annually on many of the children of the leaders to study in the US etc, yet this miserable and failed organization does not have the money to spend on and fund the establishment of a Palestine Documentation Center that can track and bring to trial all Israeli and Jewish criminals. Not only that but the PLO does not think it is necessary to document the rights of all those who lost their properties with the establishment of Israel. What is needed something similar to the Simon Wiesenthal Center fully staffed with legal, financial and property experts to documents crimes and property rights of Jews? I was in Vienna few months ago and I was taken by a Jewish friend to an apartment on the outskirt of Vienna where in 39 the Nazi came, evicted her grandparents and through the furniture from the window. Now through the hard work of the center, her mother will receive compensation for the value of the furniture which the Nazi through from the balcony. Now that is persistent, that is leadership, that is commitment and smart, something our leadership certainly lack. Do you know the PLO never opened a formal investigation into the murders in Sabra and Shatilla and never opened an formal investigation into the war crimes committed in Gaza. The leadership is self serving and should be put on trial.
Hi,
I’m an American and growing up my father was what you would call a Christian Zionist. It wasn’t something he talked about a lot so I was never brainwashed into it. In fact, it always seemed just strange and wrong to me. Once when I was in my twenties a friend sent me a series of pictures depicting a Palestinian kid who appeared to be subdued and possibly hand-cuffed on the ground by several policemen. He was then shot and was clearly dead in the last picture laying in the same spot. My friend claimed it was evidence of Israeli abuses. I was skeptical, thinking that since I wasn’t there I couldn’t judge for sure. But I asked my dad what his thoughts were on the killings of Palestinian civilians in Israel’s wars, which even then I knew about. He replied that since God had given the land to Israel they had the right to kill anyone who tried to keep them from it. I think that was the beginning of my awakening to the plight of Palestine. But in the end it took many more years before I learned how much is really left out of American news coverage. In any case, I’m sure you are still justified in being skeptical about whether the world will pay any more attention now than it used too. But the one thing I want to point out is that in ’48 and ’67 the media of the world were much more centrally controlled and most of the public in most Western countries were dependent on what those media chose to tell them. I’m sure a certain number of people knew what was really happening even then. But those in power could always slant it or spin it in the media and had an interest in doing so. In addition many of the older generation, powerful or not, were still thinking in terms of the WWII and were either still under the spell of the Holocaust and therefore unlikely to speak out against a Jewish nation or they were, like my grandfather, simply isolationist and possibly racist against Jews and Arabs anyway. But nowadays three things have changed. One, there is, of course, the internet so information is not centrally controlled like it used to be. (Though I’ve heard that due to international treaties currently under discussion, such as ACTA new controls might be enacted. Probably very mildly at first, but it’s always a gradual movement so as not to alarm anyone.) And this brings me to my second point. While the internet has been around for a while, and so you might argue it hasn’t had that much impact, it’s becoming more and more important. More newspapers in the US are failing, and more kids are growing up in the internet age. Less people are watching even cable news, and are getting their news online. This is the chance for blogs like this to break the hold that the Zionist influence has over American media. (Which in my mind is incredibly powerful and pervasive.) And the third point is that people in the US, grow up much more liberal and politically correct these days. So they are less likely to be racist and more likely to be against anything that even looks like apartheid. Thus I think there is real reason to hope that this last Gaza massacre is the tipping point when kids in America will begin to wonder why their counter-parts in Europe are protesting for the Palestinians. The American media can’t keep Americans from being informed like it used to. That said, the lack of real education and prevalence of willful ignorance in America is still a factors that have to dealt with, as is general apathy about government which no longer represents the people. But that’s another story.
Yes, Samil. Arafat may not have been the best for Palestine. But, Arafat is dead. The PLO seems to be dead these days, too.
Yes, perhaps the Palestinians could learn a lesson about persistance from your friend’s mother, but I think they are more concerned with living at this point.
And, at this point, there is truly nobody to speak up for them; there is, at least, no Zionist Jew who cares to listen to ANY Palestinian. It is why I believe America and other nations with power DO need to come to aide of the Palestinian people. Until there is a TRUE cease-fire *from the side of the Israelis, I don’t see any negotiations or anything positive for Palestinians.
Sadly, in America, we have far too many blinded by the “news” we get out of israel/Palestine… Thankfully, I was sent to other news programs, out of other countries where the people care and their news is not run by the Israeli lobby. The ONE positive thing I see these days is that the newspapers in the US seem to be dropping like flies, opening up other online (from other countries, especially) sources for truth-filled news. I found this site with ONE search term, after all.
Glad you found us Anne, and thanks for sharing your thoughts. You are right, there is something that forbids all Zionists (Jewish or otherwise) from listening to Palestinians, although they do listen to a few Arabs that they know are easy to manipulate like Chalabi, Zogby, Mahmoud Abbas, Dahlan, who are willing to play the game and sell out Arab people.
The mass media in the US, but not only there, does not necessarily need to be run by the Israeli Lobby, it is good enough to know what is expected and to come up with the goods.
I regularly translate Giulietto Chiesa, please read what he says about all of this.
http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2004/12/giulietto-chiesa-ten-commandments-of.html
http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/02/giulietto-chiesa-great-lie-factory.html
@Mary Rizzo –
Mary;
Thank you for the welcome AND, especially, for the links. I have started with the first and expect I will need far much more time to read and digest it. One that particularly looks interesting to me is “My kharma ran over your Dogma..”. I’m sure much of this will be worth the time and query, and passing on to others who will possibly pass on even further.
It’s so wonderful to find this online community of people who truly do care about Palestine and Arab/Muslim people, especially when confronted on a daily basis by those who feel the exact opposite. Living in the U.S., I find myself disheartened, regularly.
Thanks again. I am looking forward to “meeting up”, much more often, here and there!
@Yisrael Medad – You are an arrogant, racist, Naqba denier.
@amos zukerman –
Yes, I just read this comment you refer to.. wow.. Even IF what this commenter said were true, “ONLY 110 dead”, it’s more than enough. Surely, it is far more than “5”.
RIdiculous what some consider okay.