By Haaniya Jiffrey Shiyam –

Allow me to begin with a mundane but apt analogy to grasp the situation: I place a pressure cooker on the fire but completely seal off its vent, so it can neither whistle nor let off steam, believing in blissful ignorance that it is alright to do so. All of a sudden it explodes, injuring me sorely in the process. Yes, I am hurt and it is undoubtedly painful and I complain of how shocking this is, expecting sympathy and care from others. And yet, how unreasonable of me it is to blame the cooker and to deny any responsibility for having been so blind to the consequences of my own neglect and lack of common sense? Similarly, when a people are oppressed for decades, denied their fundamental rights and even their humanity, then it is inevitable that resistance will build up and erupt. It is futile to complain of such violence after having provoked it oneself. The recent scenes of terror in Israel and Palestine, although they deserve our severest censure, did not materialize in a vacuum, but in a profoundly disturbing and unacceptable socio-political ethos manouvered and maintained through military coercion by the State of Israel.

The economic disparity between the occupiers and the occupied is so glaringly marked. “Poor Nations are hungry, and rich Nations are proud, and Pride and Hunger will ever be at Variance.” Such repercussions as we presently experience seem unavoidable as we gather from the following quote dating back to the late 1920s when Albert Einstein declared, “Should we be unable to find a way to honest cooperation and honest pacts with the Arabs, then we have learned absolutely nothing during our two thousand years of suffering and deserve all that will come to us.” 

With the full advantage of hindsight at our disposal, can leaders not accept, at least, now, the wisdom of this eminent man who envisioned the dangers involved, with his acute foresight?

Behind the façade of democracy Israel propagates its authoritarian regime. Its war marches on relentlessly crushing defenceless people, while its ideological war bombards us with misinformation, fabrication and hate missiles, to shatter our thoughts so that we cannot see the true picture anymore. We have to seek out the alternative discourse to grasp the enormity of the horror being enacted in Gaza. Away with assumptions and ignorance! Instead, we must resort to facts from history, and learn from sane, sensible and sagacious leaders and thinkers on how to approach this matter as rational beings. For, as Jonathan Swift puts it, “…no person can disobey reason, without giving up his claim to be a rational creature.” To be able to put away our prejudices and to consider a narrative from a different, more realistic perspective is the minimum of what we owe ourselves and the world.

Neither violence nor its causes are justifiable. Those who provoke it are no less guilty than those who perpetrate it. Racist propaganda and hate speeches instigate brutality beyond measure. The stabbing of a six-year old Palestinian boy in Illinois, United States is the direct outcome of such inflammatory statements. The horrendous crime of bombing the largest hospital in Gaza has incurred more than five hundred deaths. While the parties issue disclaimers to save their own image, the loss and suffering that ensue are endured by innocent people, regardless of their race or ethnicity. No mother, no child, no person of whatever affiliation or origin ever deserves to be killed by terrorism by any group or any state. There is no absolution for such heinous acts and no getting away with selective naming of one as “terrorism” and the other as “defence or retaliation.” Anyone who even passively condones violence has complete complicity and responsibility in every stage of the process. Those who condemn the October 7^th attacks, as we all do vehemently and unreservedly, must also condemn the atrocities of October 8^th onwards (not to mention all the years prior to that) unleashed upon civilians in Gaza.  One cannot pretend not to be aware of the racist oppression of the Palestinians by Israel, which, in turn, gives rise to outbursts of violence.  

The Israeli award-winning writer and journalist Gideon Levy categorically stated that what Israel is practising nothing less than apartheid. Further, the President of South Africa reminds the world that Palestine is fighting occupation by Israel for the past seventy-five years and that the oppressive Israel State has, in the more recent years, constricted them further through what his nation knows only too well – apartheid. Former US President Jimmy Carter in his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid criticizes the Israeli discrimination against Palestinians. Their appalling living conditions prompt the designation of “an open-air prison” from UN expert of the Human Rights Council in July, 2023. Lauren Booth, activist and journalist, asserts that it is even worse, resembling concentration camps in terms of congestion, food insecurity, and prolonged captivity.

The retaliation of Israel outrageously outweighs the immense damage done by Hamas as it fails to admit that Palestinian civilians, half of them children, are not Hamas. If the world is going to look on in apathy, or worse, approval of Israel avenging itself, thus, on the wrong target, Justice cannot prevail! And then how can one hope for peace to dawn? This is why in the present context of war Richard Haass, Senior Counselor and Diplomat, explains why he is concerned about a large-scale invasion of Gaza and says that “Israel needs a Palestinian state as a favour to itself.” Mahatma Gandhi opined similar sentiments and objected to Israeli occupation of Palestine from its inception. He, the champion of non-violence, “insisted that Jews could only settle in Palestine with the goodwill of the Arab population, without the assistance of British military force.” Thus the eighteenth century satirist Jonathan Swift’s contention remains highly relevant to this day: “For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.”  

The insights provided by Dr. Gabor Mate, Hungarian-Canadian physician and author are crucial to highlight some truths. As a Holocaust survivor he became a Zionist and staunchly believed in a Jewish homeland. Then he realized that “in order to make this Jewish dream a reality we had to visit a nightmare on the local population.”

He continues,

“There’s no way you could have ever created a Jewish state without oppressing and expelling the local population. Jewish Israeli historians have shown without a doubt that the expulsion of Palestinians was persistent, pervasive, cruel, murderous and with deliberate intent – that’s what’s called the ‘Nakba’ in Arabic; the ‘disaster’ or the ‘catastrophe’.

He emphasises the injustice further: “It’s the longest ethnic cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st century. I could land in Tel Aviv tomorrow and demand citizenship but my Palestinian friend in Vancouver, who was born in Jerusalem, can’t even visit!”

And he sums up thus: “You think the worst thing you can say about Hamas, multiply it by a thousand times, and it still will not meet the Israeli repression and killing and dispossession of Palestinians.”

One cannot but notice in what stark contrast this stands to the eloquent celebration of Israel by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as reported by Al Jazeera Columnist in May 2023:“Seventy-five years ago, a dream was realized,” she said. “You [Israel] have literally made a desert bloom.”

He points out that: “Her crude revisionism and recycling of a familiar, bigoted trope was condemned instantly and loudly by Palestinians who have not only endured the endless nightmare of Israel’s ruthless occupation, but who have also been invaded, jailed, tortured, killed and had their homes and lands stolen by the dynamic and ingenious birthday boy [Israel] celebrating Independence Day along with President von der Leyen.”

The Jewish Rabbi Dovid Weiss describes the Jewish state as having no legitimacy and goes on to enlighten us on how Judaism and Zionism have entirely different values. In his view, Zionism is antithetical to the Commandments of the Torah which forbids stealing and killing. Stealing and killing are not only the daily practice but the state policy of Israel! You may call it occupation, expansion or colonization; the Palestinians are robbed of their land, their rights and even their human dignity by the Zionist state of Israel. Although Albert Einstein was in favour of the Jews acquiring a homeland, he did not advocate it at the cost of the Palestinians losing their territory or autonomy. Rather, he promoted a peaceful and honest bilateral arrangement with the Arabs for a sustainable cohabitation. In a 1938 speech, Einstein said, “I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state.”  He declined the offer to be the President of Israel, partly owing to his aversion to the fascist tendencies of the Zionist agenda. For example, he was one of the prominent members of the Jewish community who collectively wrote to The New York Times to condemn the massacre of Arabs by Jews in the village of Deir Yassin.

According to Rabbi Dovid Weiss, pious followers of Judaism do not claim to own an inch of land in Palestine.  The Zionists’ whole agenda, however, is to dispossess the Palestinians of their homeland and to occupy the land themselves. Edward Said, the reputed writer born in Palestine and expelled therefrom, like thousands of other countrymen, exposes the double standards of the State of Israel in its citizenship policies, occupation of land and much more in his erudite discussions. He points out that being the victim of holocaust atrocities does not legitimize the Zionist persecution or oppression of Palestinians. Therefore, we regard Hitler’s massacre of the Jews with the same abhorrence with which we condemn the autocratic oppression and murderous apartheid carried out by the Israeli State against the Palestinian people during the last seven decades.  It is senseless and insupportable to avenge yourself on an innocent third party merely because you have been victimized by another ruthless oppressor. The claim of the Zionist hegemony that the expulsion of Jews by the Nazis justifies the founding and expansion of the State of Israel in Palestine is neither logical nor legitimate.   Norman Finkelstein, the American poet whose Jewish parents survived the Holocaust, comments on Israeli Defence Minister’s recent announcement that they will stop basic supplies such as water, food, electricity and fuel to Gaza.  He reminds us that Nazi Germany killed one million children which coincides with the number of children in Gaza now. He states, “I find it very hard not to use the word genocide to describe what the plan is. …the actual Israeli plan … laid out in broad daylight…the plan of extermination…  That is a genocidal plan.”

“Laws are like cobwebs,” writes Jonathan Swift, to quote him once more, “which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” When will law be enforced against Israel’s blatant war crimes? How can they so boldly announce that basic amenities will no longer be supplied to civilians in Gaza? What makes them able to violate International Law and exercise a blockade preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the people?  Will they be accountable for the use of white phosphorous against civilians which allegedly violates the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) of 1980?  Will authorities take immediate punitive measures against the bombers of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza? How efficient and committed are the world organizations to intervene in this bleak scenario, to immediately put a stop to the fighting and to pave the way for negotiations? These are questions looming in the minds of all who are deeply affected by this atrocious drama in real life. The US Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders rightly asserts in his recent statement,“Right now, the international community must focus on reducing humanitarian suffering and protecting innocent people on both sides of this conflict.” 

Meanwhile, let us not lose hope in humanity. The demonstrations in all parts of the world are witness to the widespread solidarity with the oppressed. Even Jewish Rabbis are openly denouncing Zionism and Occupation of Palestine. Let us never side with the oppressor, even if it seems profitable to do so, because the oppressor deals in lies and deceit which cannot last. The oppressed, with truth and justice on their side, are the once that will triumph as truth is lasting and indomitable. Let us create awareness and promote balanced and healthy views on matters based on facts and reason. Let us help people be rid of their parochial, petty mindsets and guide them towards love, and not hate, of fellow human beings. When we learn that all of us are equal and that no one has the right to disparage another on the basis of nationality, race, ethnicity, culture or religion, it is then that the world will achieve true liberation and progress. One may conclude with (one of) the earliest piece(s) of anti-racist legislation:

“All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; a white has no superiority over a black, nor does a black have any superiority over a white except by piety and good action.”

From the last sermon of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), 632 AD.