The horrific scenes of death and destruction in Gaza are a reminder that for Israel, violence is not coincidental, accidental or coincidental. This is an integral part of its colonial DNA.
Like the French in Algeria, the Dutch in Indonesia and South Africa, the Belgians in the Congo, the Spanish in South America and the Europeans in North America, the Zionists also dehumanized the natives of their country, a precursor or justification for their guilt. -free repression and violence. But colonialism should not be confused with Judaism. On the contrary, Jews have historically been victims of racism for centuries, which has made many of them anti-colonialists.
In 1948, Israel was created on the ruins of another people, the Palestinians. It became a Jewish-majority state through the deliberate ethnic cleansing of the country’s 750,000 Palestinian residents. Since then, Israel has maintained its security through state repression, military occupation, bloody wars and countless massacres against civilians.
Nazareth, my hometown, was one of the few spared from ethnic cleansing, but only because a military commander named Benjamin Dunkelman, a Canadian Jew who led the Israeli army’s 7th Brigade, refused to evacuate his superiors. order for this predominantly Christian city, as he later wrote, mainly out of fear of international repercussions.
Around 400 other Palestinian towns and villages were not so lucky. They were all depopulated and the majority were entirely decimated. Their inhabitants were either killed or expelled. The properties there were either demolished or confiscated. They were given new Hebrew names. Palestinians who tried to return home were shot or forcibly sent to neighboring countries.
In his book Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, Meron Benvenisti, an Israeli political scientist, writes: “Since the end of the Middle Ages, the civilized world had not witnessed a massive appropriation of the sacred sites of a country. religious community defeated by members of the victorious community.
Since then, Israel has had its eyes on the people themselves, regardless of their leaders or theirs. The Palestinians are viewed by Israel as either an internal enemy that must be eradicated or a demographic threat that must be eliminated. It is no coincidence that since its creation, Israel has established an oppressive regime of “Jewish superiority.” This regime was extended after the war and occupation of 1967 to the whole of historic Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Hence the Palestinian cry: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
For decades, Israel has used disproportionate force and committed countless massacres against Palestinian civilians as revenge, punishment and deterrence. Last month, Palestinians commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Qibya massacre, where, in retaliation for a Palestinian attack on an Israeli settlement that killed three people, including two children, Israeli forces under the leadership of Ariel Sharon attacked the West Bank village. approximately 2,000 residents, killing 69 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
This same vengeful mindset was applied 70 years later in Gaza. It is a strategy of deterrence aimed deliberately at harming civilians in order to distance them from their leaders and the groups fighting on their behalf. Today, the Israeli propaganda machine is busy collecting the desperate and angry cries, real and fabricated, from Gaza residents, accusing Hamas of bringing Israel’s wrath upon them.
Israel never accepts an “eye for an eye” in its confrontations with the Palestinians. He insists on a ratio of 1 to 10 or 20 when it comes to his civilian casualties compared to Palestinian civilian casualties. Therefore, the Palestinian civilian must pay a heavy price in every confrontation, regardless of any moral or legal considerations.
Nowhere is asymmetry more prevalent than in Israel’s 56-year military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which, by its very nature, is a perpetual system of violence against civilians. Generation after generation, Palestinians have had to endure a racist, horrific and illegal military occupation that has resulted in daily humiliations, collective punishments, land confiscations and the destruction of lives and livelihoods. For Gaza, this meant a 17-year siege of the Gaza Strip, through an appalling and inhumane military blockade, military incursions, bombing of civilian infrastructure and much more.
Although Israel claims to have “no choice,” its occupation is in fact driven by strategy, not necessity. For the past six decades, Israel has controlled the Palestinian territories partly to colonize them through hundreds of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land, partly to hold their population hostage until their leaders accepted its political dictates. , which are by definition a form of state. terrorism, which means using violence against civilians for political purposes.
Another important factor behind Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians, as I have explained here, is hatred – hatred fueled by fear, envy and anger.
Israel fears everything that is Palestinian steadfastness, Palestinian unity, Palestinian resistance, Palestinian poetry and all Palestinian national symbols. Such fear breeds hatred, because a state that is always afraid cannot be free. Israel is angry at the Palestinians who refuse to give up or give in, for not leaving – far away. They refuse to give up their fundamental rights, let alone recognize their defeat. Israel is also jealous of the internal power and external pride of the Palestinians. He is jealous of their strong convictions and their willingness to sacrifice.
In short, Israel hates the Palestinian people because they prevent the realization of the Zionist utopia throughout historic Palestine. And he especially hates those who live in Gaza, as I wrote last year, for turning the dream into a nightmare.
But the answer in Gaza and the rest of Palestine cannot be more killing and more occupation. In fact, the industrial-scale massacre and nationwide repression of Palestinians, in retaliation for the horrific October 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, is both utterly criminal and terribly senseless. Israel has tried to live by the sword for the past 75 years, but it has sowed the same insecurity, infamy and anger. Repeating the same strategy over and over again and expecting different results is indeed stupid. If it continues to deny the Palestinians a life and a future, Israel will also be left without a life or a future worth living in this Arab region.