Justice requires a
change in the balance of forces on the ground
The way western politicians and
media have pontificated about Israel's onslaught on Gaza, you'd think it was
facing an unprovoked attack from a well-armed foreign power. Israel had every
"right to defend itself",Obama declared. "No country on earth would tolerate
missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders."
He was echoed by Britain's foreign
secretary, William Hague, who declared that the Palestinian Islamists of Hamas
bore "principal responsibility" for Israel's bombardment of the
open-air prison that is the Gaza Strip.
In fact, an examination of the
events over the last month shows that Israel played the decisive role in the
military escalation: from its attack on a Khartoum arms factory reportedly
supplying arms to Hamas and the killing of 15 Palestinian fighters in late
October, to the killing of a 13 year-old in an Israeli incursion and,
crucially,the assassination of the Hamas commander Ahmed Jabari last
Wednesday during negotiations over a temporary truce.
Israel's PM Netanyahu, had plenty of
motivation to unleash a new round of bloodletting. There was the imminence of
Israeli elections (military attacks are par for the course before Israeli
polls); the need to test Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi, and pressure
Hamas to bring other Palestinian guerrilla groups to heel. So after six days of
sustained assault by the world's fourth largest military power on one of its
most wretched and overcrowded territories, at least 130 Palestinians had been
killed, an estimated half of them civilians, along with five Israelis.
Despite Israel's withdrawal of
settlements and bases in 2005, the Gaza Strip remains occupied, both
effectively and legally – and is recognised as such by the UN. Israel is in control of Gaza's land and sea borders, territorial waters and
natural resources, airspace, power supply and telecommunications. It has
blockaded the strip since Hamas took over in 2006-7, preventing the movement of
people, materials, and food supplies in and out of the territory. So Gazans are
an occupied people and have the right to resist, including by armed force
(though not to target civilians), while Israel is an occupying power that has
an obligation to withdraw – not a right to defend territories it controls or is
colonising by dint of military power.
Even if Israel had genuinely ended
its occupation in 2005, Gaza's people are Palestinians, and their territory
part of the 22% of historic Palestine earmarked for a Palestinian state that
depends on Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Across their land, Palestinians have the right to defend and arm themselves,
whether they choose to exercise it or not. But instead the US, Britain and
other European powers finance, arm and back to the hilt Israel's occupation,
including the siege of Gaza – precisely to prevent Palestinians obtaining the
arms that would allow them to protect themselves against Israeli military
might.
It's hardly surprising of course
that powers which have themselves invaded, occupied and intervened across the
Arab and Muslim world over the last decade should throw their weight behind
Israel doing the same thing on its own doorstep. But it isn't Palestinian
rockets that stop Israel lifting the blockade, dismantling its illegal
settlements or withdrawing from the West Bank and Gaza – it's US and western
support that gives Israel impunity.
Emboldened by the wave of change and
growing support across the region, Hamas has also regained credibility as a
resistance force, and strengthened its hand against an increasingly discredited
Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah. The deployment of longer-range
rockets that have now been shown to reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is also
beginning to shift what has been an overwhelmingly one-sided balance of
deterrence.
The truce being negotiated on
Tuesday would reportedly enforce Hamas responsibility for policing the strip
and crucially break the blockade, opening the Rafah crossing with Egypt for
goods as well as people. It doesn't, however, look like the long-term security
deal with Hamas Israel was looking for, which would risk deepening the
disastrous Palestinian split between Gaza and the West Bank.
Any relief from the bombardment,
death and suffering of the past week has got to be welcome. But no ceasefire is
going to prevent another eruption of violence. Whatever is finally agreed won't
end Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land or halt its war of
dispossession against the Palestinian people. That demands unrelenting pressure
on the western powers that underwrite it to change course. But most of all, it
needs a change in the balance of forces on the ground. [Abridged]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/20/palestinians-have-right-defend-themselves
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