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AL
HABTOOR INFORMATION RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
Most
people have very little time to study and
understand their political and religious
history. This ignorance can lead to them
becoming powerful tools in the hands of
unscrupulous politicians who can use
mythologies and half-truths to justify
their policies and actions. When history
is made to pander to prejudice, it makes
people blind to the lessons that can be
drawn from their past.
Such
is the case with Israel. Its ruthless
determination to retain all that it has
conquered since 1948, its desire to rid
itself of the Palestinians, its undisputed
arrogance in its relations with other
nations, especially its neighbours, and
its total disregard for the human rights
of anyone not Jewish, have blinded it to
its own history.
The concept of a Jewish state is a
relatively recent one; conceived by the
Zionist Movement at the end of the 19th
century as a home where all Jewish people
could escape persecution. The Zionists,
when they articulated this idea, were
reacting to the persecution and
discrimination against Jews in Europe.
There, Jews spent most of their lives
herded into walled ghettos and had their
citizenship restricted, and often needed
special documents just to leave the ghetto
- this was particularly the case in
Russia. There, as a matter of policy, the
government deliberately incited hatred of
the Jews as a way to deflect the anger of
the Russian people against poverty and
backwardness of their own lives that
resulted from the feudal nature of the
Czarist regime.
Now, fast forward to today and a
description by a leading Portuguese writer
of what he saw when he visited the
Palestinian recently.
He wrote: "The entry points to
villagers have been walled over, civilian
population movement is paralysed, ghettos
and reservations have been created where
only tanks patrol, and attack helicopters
fly-over on a permanent basis." Were
it not for the references to the tanks and
helicopters, this description of the
reality of daily life for the Palestinian
could equally describe a Jewish ghetto in
Europe during the Nazis occupation; and in
Russia anytime over the three hundred
years leading up to the World War II.
At first, the original leaders of the
Zionist movements sought any land that
they could adopt as a Jewish home; Uganda
and South America where among the lands
first considered. But finally it was
decided to try and settle in Palestine.
One of the primary reasons for their
decision to adopt Palestine as the country
in which to set up a Jewish state was that
the Zionists knew it would appeal to most
Jews, especially those living in the
ghettos of Eastern Europe, who could
identify with such a concept religiously.
For centuries, Jews had concluded their
Passover celebration with these dramatic
and emotional words. "Next Year in
Jerusalem.” It was more a heartfelt
prayer, although it contained their dream
of one-day returning to the Land of
Israel, and the rebuilding of the City of
David. It was not taken seriously. This
tenant of Jewish faith was, and still is,
the very essence of Jewish existence; it
became an essential ingredient to their
survival in the hostile and violent world
of Medieval Europe. Initially, the vast
majority of European Jews did not support
the Zionists. In fact, most orthodox Jews
were anti-Zionist, as they believed that
only God should reunite Jews in the
Promised Land. But as anti-Semitism grew
throughout Europe, culminating in the
1930's with the raise to power of Adolf
Hitler in Germany, Jewish people became
increasingly desperate to find a safe
haven from persecution. It was only then,
that the idea of a homeland for Jews began
to be seriously considered by a majority
of Jews. This led to increasingly numbers
of them, with the aid of rich and
influential American Jews and the
Zionists, to try and settle in Palestine.
In 1922 the British persuaded the League
of Nations to give it a Mandate to
administer Palestine. They retained
control until 1948, when despairing of
ever being able to govern they
relinquished their Mandate to the United
Nations. During the 26
years of British rule the Zionists began
bringing increasing numbers of Jews to
Palestine; in 1935 over 60,000 Jews came
to Palestine. This led to a revolt in 1936
by the Arabs, Christian and Muslim,
sparked off by fears of Jewish domination.
This revolt rumbled on until 1939, when
the British with the aid of the Zionist
Militia and the complicity of neighbouring
Arab countries, have finally crushed it.
The defeat of the Arabs led to the exile
of almost the entire Palestinian political
leadership, leaving the Palestinians
disorganised politically throughout the
next decade. The cost of this uprising for
the Palestinians was 5,032 dead and 14,760
wounded according to a Harvard history
Professor.
At the same time as Arabs were rising up
to protect their rights, the more extreme
of the Zionist organisations were turning
to armed struggle to established an
independent Jewish State in Palestine.
Prior to the establishment of the
British Mandate the Zionists had already
established a group of mounted watchman
called "Hashomar", that, when
the British took over became the Haganah (defence)
with a membership of over 60,000 Zionists.
The Haganah had a field army of 16,000
trained men and a unit called the Palmach,
which was a full time force of 6,000. The
Irgun Zvai Leumi included between 3000 and
5000 armed terrorists and grew out of the
Haganah and Palmach. In 1939 one of the
Irgun's commanding officers, Abraham
Stern, formed what became known as the
'Stern Gang', numbering 200 to 300
dangerous fanatics. Stern so hated the
British that he was prepared to make a
deal with the Nazis to help overthrow the
British in Palestine. The Haganah, Irgun
Zavai Leumi and the Stern Gang committed
acts of terrorism and assassination
against the British and were violently
anti-Arab. Interestingly, two of the
leaders of these terrorist groups went on
to become the Prime Ministers of Israel.
They were: Menahem Begin, leader of the
Irgun from 1943 to 1948, and Yitzhak
Shamir who headed the Stern Gang. These
acts included the bombing of the King
David hotel that killed 97 British
citizens (still the largest number of
deaths for a terrorist bombing in
Palestine's history to date), the murder
of Lord Moyne in Cairo and the murder of
Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN appointed
mediator to Palestine in 1948.
In the 18 months leading up to the Untied
Nations vote on the two-state solution
that would give the Jews a state, these
Jewish terrorists used every conceivable
form of violence. They attacked airfields
and radar stations, armories and military
posts, wrecked railway lines and robbed
banks, and murdered soldiers and
civilians. In 1948,
the Irgun led at the time by Mernachem
Begin, raided the Arab village of Deir
Yaseen and killed 254 of its
inhabitants. These terrorist groups
claimed that these acts of terrorism
largely forced the British to end their
Mandate, enabling the creation of the
State of Israel.
Of course the Israelis do not see these
events in quite the same light. Israeli
histories label these terrorist groups as
'freedom fighters', who are held in high
esteem as 'heroes' for sacrificing
themselves on the alter of Jewish
Nationalism. This type of mythology is
taught in Israeli schools where children
learn that is noble to give up your life
for your country. Often, the myth of
Massada, where ancient Jews swore to die
rather than surrender to the Romans and
committed suicide rather than face defeat,
is featured in the cirriculum.
Again let's fast forward to the present,
today it is the Palestinians who are
willing to give their lives for the idea
of national statehood. They too would
rather die then live as a conquered
people, they too are facing a well-armed
and ruthless standing army and a
militarised civil society, in which every
citizen has a gun. The difference is that
they only have stones and a few outdated
weapons with which to face down the might
of Israel. Because of their military
weakness they are making themselves their
weapon, they are wrapping home made
explosive around their bodies and
exploding themselves anywhere they find
their enemy. Unfortunately this method is
indiscriminate and kills the innocent as
well.
They are described and condemned as
terrorists by nearly everyone in the West.
But the suicide bomber has the
international law on his side.
International legislation acknowledges the
right of occupied people to use force
against their oppressors, both inside the
occupied territories and outside of them.
This principle, ironically, was
reconfirmed at the Nuremberg Tribunal
after World War II. This was done to
forestall Nazis claims that partisans,
ghetto fighters and other underground
resistance forces in the territories
occupied by Germany have allegedly been
"terrorists" These principles
can be extended to the settlers in the
West Bank and Gaza even though they are
civilians. They become legitimate targets
because it is Israel who is sending them
there as colonists.
So by the logic of Israeli history these
Palestinian "terrorists” are really
“freedom fighters” who like the
Israeli "freedom fighters” of the
past should be celebrated for resisting
occupation and fighting for an independent
Palestine against the people that have
conquered and occupied it.
Israel evidently has not learnt from its
own history that shows when a people are
pushed beyond their endurance they will
raise up and fight with whatever means is
available to them to try and ensure their
survival. Jews have done this – remember
the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Now the
Palestinians are doing the same thing in
Jenin and Remallah. Now instead of Nazis
versus the existence of the Jews we have
Israel versus the existence of the
Palestinians.
Thanks to Hitler for setting such
insurmountable standards of horror, but
the Israelis are truly offended when they
are likened to the Nazis. It is true that
they have no death camps and they have not
massacred one third of the Palestinian
Population. But it is no less immoral and
inhuman to kill, injure, torture and maims
indiscriminately based on race or
religion. Dispossessing thousands and
surrounding millions of people with
electronic fences and tanks in tiny
enclaves is to place a people under siege.
To make pregnant women walk to hospitals,
shoot at ambulances, kill paramedics, use
civilians as human shields and extract
reprisals from the innocent is exactly how
the Nazis enforced their occupation of the
lands they conquered.
So, it is surprising that Israel is blind
to its own past experience. They should
know by now that the more you hurt a
people and try and destroy their identity,
the stronger they will become. Their
hatred and desperation will eventually
overcome their fear and perhaps by
resisting even when all seems hopeless
they can achieve their freedom as an
independent people secure within their own
boarders, or at the very least die
fighting trying.
Repression
will not prevail in the long term, as all
it does is instill hatred for you in the
hearts of others and ensures that your
violence will be returned to you someday.
So, Israel, learn your history, turn away
from the futility of violence and pursue a
peaceful solution to today’s problems to
ensure that you too have a future! It is
always better to live at peace with your
neighbours, for if you do not eventually
your neighbours will join together and
destroy you.
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