By Syed Akbar Kamal
For generations the people of the world have endured the constant barrage of information flowing out of Palestine. The immense suffering and torture of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli Zionists paints a bleak picture of a defenseless people resisting occupation of their country.
The annihilated, beleaguered and hapless Palestinians witnessed their country wiped off the map as it were right in front of their eyes with the complicity of Western nations mainly Europeans and the United States on May 15, 1948. ‘Nakba’ – the catastrophe – imposed on the Palestinians by Zionists with the active connivance of Western imperialists under the slogan “a people without a land and a land without a people” usurped land of the very people who gave them shelter and refuge from the atrocities of the anti-Semite Europeans.
The disdainful subjugation, extermination and expropriation of their lands continued unabated well into the coming decades mocking the world community that was aghast at the treachery and deception with which it was accomplished. It still goes on with impunity against all international norms. Those who dare raise their voice are brutally challenged, marginalised and silenced.
To a common man the illegitimacy of the state is more than apparent but to the spineless governments of the world who often refuse to call a spade a spade one is witness to selective amnesia. The present Zionist state of Israel is waging a losing battle to force on countries and world’s mindset to acknowledge its legitimacy but clearly it is an illegitimate state that was carved out of Palestine contending historical claims and thrust on the people of Palestine and the world at large through Zionist manipulative terrorism. The more force they applied to legitimize the more foes they added to their list. The world outcry against the present carnage is ample testimony to this.
Selective policies full of double standard – 17 Israelis killed by Qassam home-made rockets in 7 years yet these pipes have become the pretext for Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, stopping arms flow through the tunnels of Rafah crossing for Hamas resistance fighters and the imposition of complete siege of the Gaza strip by land, sea and air while the Zionist entity is pumped to the brim by hundreds of thousands of tonnes of US arms to rain on killing the civilians flouting all international laws, committing war crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide and converting Gaza into world’s largest open air prison whose 1.5 million people live under appalling conditions of ‘siege’ as if its status of being most densely populated place on earth was not enough.
Israel applied apartheid policies in building the separation wall dividing families and restricting their movement through 699 check points to name a few from a long list – all smacks of selective application of rules when it comes to the indigenous people of the land. As the present Gaza carnage enters its 16th day Press TV news report say the US is shipping another over 3 thousand tonnes of weapons to Israel and the US officials insist that it is not linked to Gaza war. They want the whole world to believe them. $3 billion annual aid is unconditionally given to Israel out of US taxpayer’s money followed by Egypt as the second largest recipient since Camp David Accord in 1979. How does the world view this special relationship in stark contrast to the naked disparity in US foreign policies toward other countries and regions? It completely defies all logic and imagination. And why not, Israel fulfils its role as a client state safeguarding US interests in the Middle East.
So far in the latest unprovoked planned Israeli aggression on Gaza an estimated 1/3rd of over 1200 killed and over 6,000 injured are women and children. As in the 2006 Lebanon war Israel is using internationally banned weapons – white phosphorous bombs, Cluster ammunitions, Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME), Depleted Uranium Dpu. The anger on the streets given Israel’s systematic targeting and merciless killing of civilians especially women and children stirred the conscience of the world at large so much so that the first ladies of the Middle East gathered for an unprecedented meet in Turkey to condemn Israeli actions and to show solidarity for Gazans seeking ways to alleviating their plight. The deafening silence on part of certain Arab governments is fueling discontent among its citizens. There have been calls for using oil as a weapon to place oil embargo to make the West and Israel relent.
Historian Mark Levine in his analysis titled ‘Who will save Israel from itself?’ writes “Israeli commentators and scholars, self-described "loyal" Zionists who served proudly in the army in wars past, are now publicly describing their country, in the words of Oxford University professor Avi Shlaim, as a "rogue" and gangster" state led by "completely unscrupulous leaders". Inside Israel, the violence will continue to erode both democratic values in the Jewish community, and any acceptance of the Jewish state’s legitimacy in the eyes of its Palestinian citizens. Israel’s main patron, the US, along with the conservative Arab autocracies and monarchies that are its only allies left in the Muslim world, are losing whatever crumbs of legitimacy they still had with their young and angry populations. And goes on to ask: Who will save Israel from herself? Israelis are clearly incapable. Their addiction as a society to the illusion of violence-as-power has reached the level of collective mental illness.
The Zionist Movement instigated the world powers for the creation of an illegitimate state solely based on historical claims on Palestine, the land that belonged to Palestinians for an uninterrupted 1300 years. Since 61 years the entity is on a relentless quest for legitimizing this claim.
This war which is fought in the name of securing the Holy Land, I wonder with the blood smeared on its land of innocent women, children and civilians will ever legitimately belong to the oppressors? Can God be so unjust?
– Syed Akbar Kamal is producer/director for www.teamworkproductions.co.nz. He has written on a wide range of issues for domestic and international publications. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: kamals@xtra.co.nz.
