No particular religious or ethnic group can claim exclusive rights over Palestine. It belongs to the people who have lived there for centuries, even before the advent of Judaism, Christianity or Islam. Many amongst them, converted to Judaism, followed by Christianity and finally as Muslims. Egyptian Mamluks took control of this area, and reunified Palestine, before it was taken over by the Ottomans in 1516. During Prophet Jesus (PBUH) time, ancient Palestine was part of Canaan region. Palestinians of all faiths, Muslims, Christians and Jews have lived and coexisted peacefully, each practicing their own faith in relative peace and harmony. Never before has any follower of Judaism cited the example of Amalek, which PM Netanyahu did to justify killing of unarmed men, women, children and infants by ruthless bombing, dropping more bombs on congested Gaza Strip in 3 weeks, than America and NATO dropped over Afghanistan in a year.
This is visceral hatred blinded by desire to expand Israel’s territory, in violation of the very basis of their creation in 1948 by UN General Assembly Resolution 181. Netanyahu compared killings in Gaza and calls for ceasefire, to America’s response when Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan in WW2. What he forgets is that America and Japan were sovereign nations, both having an army, navy and air-force. He misquoted Bible to justify that “this is a time for war”. America dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and an Extremist Zionist member of his cabinet even discussed the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb. What Netanyahu forgets is that the Holy Bible emphasizes upon love and compassion for innocent men, women and children. He is demonizing his own faith to justify brutality. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a complete siege of Gaza Strip, depriving them of water, food, medicines etc. calling them “Human Animals”, who deserve no compassion, nor can claim any human rights. Palestinians have been dehumanized and treated worse than animals. Unfortunately, the ruling elite in the whole Western world, with few exceptions, have shown muted response to collective punishment and destruction of civilian infrastructure in the congested Gaza strip. What the world seems to forget is that Israel, with one of the most well-equipped militaries in the world, an air-force and a navy is fighting against a rag-tag militant group which has outdated home-made rockets, no air-force, no navy, no armored tanks nor any precision missiles. Hamas is a militant group, which emerged in occupied Gaza strip in 1987, following a traffic accident involving a reckless Israeli driver, who killed 4 Palestinians.
An uprising followed when occupational troops refused to take any action against the driver and Hamas emerged as a resistance group. In the beginning Israel supported them to counter Al-Fatah, led by Yasir Arafat. One of founding leaders of Hamas met Yitzak Rabin as part of regular consultations to counter PLO. Gaza is a 41km long strip, with width ranging from 11 km to 7km, besieged by Israel. It was Israel’s continued occupation and expansion policy and persecution of residents of Gaza, that Hamas emerged as a popular resistance group. Its first attack against Israel occurred in 1989, when they abducted and killed two Israeli soldiers. IDF arrested Yassin a blind cleric, sentenced him to life imprisonment, deported 400 activists to South Lebanon. It was here that they came in contact with Hezbollah and a relationship was built, and Hamas emerged as a militant resistance group. Hamas simultaneously engaged in welfare activities in Gaza and became popular. Yasir Arafat, who was based in Tunisia from 1983 to 1993, returned back to Gaza City in 1994. He successfully negotiated Oslo Accord in 1993 and the 2000 Camp David Summit signed by Yitzak Rabin. PLO was officially recognized by Rabin administration. However, there was opposition to this, both within Israel and Palestinian groups opposed to Arafat. In mid-1996 Benjamin Netanyahu was elected as PM and relations with PLO soured, because he refused to allow Jerusalem to be capital of Palestine and implement Oslo accord. Several attempts were made by Mossad to assassinate Yasir Arafat. In 1982 Israel’s Defense Minister Ariel Sharon created a special task force code named “Salt Fish” to kill him. Former PM Yitzak Rabin who signed peace treatment with PLO was assassinated by an ultranationalist Zionist Yigal Amir, who opposed Oslo Agreement. Yasir Arafat was confined in his Ramallah compound for over two years from 2001 onwards until he fell into a coma and was allowed to leave only when his condition deteriorated. He died in 2004, in a hospital in France. Controversies surround his death.
In the recent barbaric siege by Israeli, over 4500 children have been slaughtered by relentless bombing. Almost 11,900 civilians have been slaughtered, in what Israel claims self-defense. It is like the Holocaust where Nazi Germany and Hitler justified collective punishment of innocent Jews. The victims of Hitler’s nazi fascism have become the architects and executioners of the worst human slaughter and collective massacre in 21st century. Such barbarity under occupation will create more resistance groups, even if every single Hamas activist is eliminated. During WW2 militant resistance groups emerged to resist Nazi Germany’s occupation of France, Poland, Italy etc. For the allied nations, these resistance groups were heroes, whilst Nazi Germany called them terrorists. Fast forward to 2023, Israel and its supporters, term the militant resistance groups as terrorists. What happened on 7 October should have been avoided but then when people are hounded, subjected to collective punishment, humiliated and scorned, rage is bound to take over.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Lahore.
Email: [email protected]
views expressed are writer’s own.
