F Y I - WHAT'S HAPPENING?
Tragedy
in Palestine
In 1948 the UN created the state of Israel by giving half of Palestine to a new country, Israel, assuming that the two states would be able to live peaceably side by side. The Israelis never made that assumption, however, because they regarded the whole area of Palestine as legitimately theirs. They have never called their actions on the West Bank and Gaza an occupation and thus never felt bound by the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit making permanent changes in an occupied territory or sending colonists to live in it. Israel calls these lands simply “disputed territories.
Instead, they began at once to establish “facts on the ground,” taking Palestinian land to build settlements, taking more Palestinian land to build roads that Palestinians could not use, not allowing permits for Palestinians to build on their own land and then demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes because they were built without a permit, destroying hundreds of fig and olive trees, and continuing to take more Palestinian land as the settlements expanded – with no compensation. Mobility and normal livelihood have been drastically limited by dozens of checkpoints where Palestinians suffer humiliation and long delays.
And now, the Israelis are building a high wall, also on Palestinian land, which is cutting through villages and dividing Palestinians from their fields. Increasingly, the Palestinians find themselves in isolated enclaves, cut off from their aquifers and orchards and separated from each other. US financial support to Israel has helped to make all this possible.
Many always hoped that sometime there would be a Palestinian state. But in 2003, the West Bank was cut into two separated regions when Israel took the slender area near Jerusalem that had connected the north and south parts of what was left of Palestine. A viable Palestinian state is no longer possible.
In the January 2006 election in the occupied territories, the Palestinians chose Hamas, a militant faction that refused to accept the legitimacy of Israel and its increasingly oppressive occupation. It had been providing social services for desperate Palestinians but had observed a unilateral cease fire for over a year.
Despite protestations of belief in democracy, the US immediately tried to undermine Hamas by keeping it from getting financial support. Congress passed a law forbidding Americans from contributing money to the Palestinian government and even set up penalties to prevent Jordanians or others from doing so. The Israelis stopped turning over taxes they collected from Palestinians to the Palestinian government. Government workers were unpaid, medical facilities suffered, and food has became more scarce. Finally, in July, 2007, these taxes are to be paid to the Palestinian government.
Then, on June 9, 2006, Israelis shelled a Gaza beach. Eight Palestinians were killed and 32 more injured. Further missile attacks in Gaza killed 14 more Palestinians and injured 45 more. In retaliation, Palestinian militants raided Israeli military positions near Gaza, Two Israelis were killed and a third was taken prisoner. Israel threatened an attack on Gaza if he was not freed, but refused an offer of his release in exchange for the release of the Palestinian women and children in Israeli jails. Prisoner exchanges have defused such incidents before.
Israel took the illegal Israeli settlements out of Gaza last year but never withdrew from the rest of Gaza. It still controls the borders and airspace above Gaza. Hamas, in spring 2007, has violently taken control of Gaza.
Since June 27, Israel had mounted increasingly violent attacks in Gaza. The borders have been closed, and bombs have crippled the infrastructure of Gaza. Water and food have been scarce, and many have no electricity. There have been nightly overflights with ground-shaking sonic booms. These attacks intensified during the war in Lebanon. Several elected Hamas Parliamentarians were arrested; some are still held.
Collective punishment is a violation of the Geneva Accords, and the 3 million Palestinians in Gaza, victims of an increasingly oppressive occupation since1948, are suffering even worse deprivations now, out of all proportion to the cause of this new Israeli fury.
The latest indignity has been cutting off Visas for Palestinians with foreign passports. Hundreds of these individuals have been having to leave the country to get new tourist visas – lately every month. Many have been living with their families in the occupied territories for many years, renewing their visas because their applications for permanent residence have never been processed. Many are people of education have been investing in the social and economic life of their communities trying to strengthen their communities and make life more livable despite the many restrictions imposed on the mobility and livelihood of Palestinians. They are needed. The presence of such constructive people has made Israel more secure.
Not only has US money paid for the building and expansion of the hundreds of settlements in the occupied territories. When Israel invaded Lebanon in July 2006, the US expedited shipment of offensive weapons to Israel, including the cluster bombs that were scattered by the hundreds during the last days of the war.
Through this kind of support, the US has forfeited the possibility of its acting as an honest broker in the present impasse while enabling the continuation of present Israeli policies.
Israel’s goal is security, but its “facts on the ground” and its collective punishments will never bring it security because they deny the legitimate aspirations of 6 million Palestinians whose land has been stolen. The US should not be facilitating this injustice. Are we so afraid of AIPAC that we can’t tell right from wrong?
10/5/06 and July 2007
