By Latheef Farook –
Latheef Farook
After World War I, Palestine which was earlier under Turkey’s Ottoman Empire, was brought under British mandated rule from 1920 to 1948. According to the population census, Jews were only 4 percent in Palestine in 1904. Christians, Jews and Muslims co-existed peacefully prior to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 promising the creation of a State for the Jews of the world in Palestine!
Violence in this part of the Middle East began after the declaration was made without any consultation or the consent of the Palestinians!
With Jews arriving from Europe and other parts of the world, in regular numbers into Palestine from 1920 onwards, conflicts and violence became a regular feature. British trained Jewish terror groups such as Hagana and Irgun led by Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon and others began organised attacks on the Palestinians aimed at driving them away from Palestine.
Well organised Jewish terrorist attacks on unarmed ordinary Palestinians went on until 1947, when the British occupying force together with United States prepared the ground for partitioning Palestine into two, one for the Jews the other for the Palestinians. Once again the British partitioning was unilaterally effected without the consent of the Palestinians.
Six months later in May 1948,United States sponsored United Nations resolution No 181 partitioned Palestine and Israel born out of terrorism, declared itself a fully “independent” State, carved out of Palestine as a sovereign nation.
All these were made possible with the power of the ‘sword’ by Western powers, guilty of the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust. Israel was created and then onwards supported by the British, France, the US and other European colonial powers, in a dubious attempt to wipe out the sins of the holocaust!
None of these countries risked sacrificing an inch of their own lands either in Europe or the US. Willingly, Israel served as the lap dog of these powers to keep the entire Arab populated Middle East in chains.
Menachem Begin with a proven record of killing in Deir Yassin 250 Palestinians in 1948, later became the Prime Minister of Israel and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Yitzhak Shamir with the dubious record of bombing King David Hotel in Jerusalem killing 90 innocent people was also rewarded to the office of Prime Minister of Israel.
They, together with other Zionist terror groups continued committing several massacres of Palestinians most of whom were regularly driven out from their traditional homelands, where migrant Jews were settled.
In June 1967 following the six day war, Israel captured the Sinai desert, the West Bank, the Golan heights, Gaza and parts of South Lebanon and other neighbouring lands.Since then Israel started establishing Jewish only settlements in the occupied lands, unleashed unprecedented oppression of Palestinians whose lives were made miserable deprived millions of people of their basic rights. Palestinians have been regularly subjected to violence by Israeli settlers, including physical attacks, shooting with live ammunition, torching of fields and livestock, theft and vandalization of property. Israeli security forces also perpetrate widespread attacks against Palestinians.
Meanwhile, there were frequent Israel’s air, sea and land blockade of Gaza creating humanitarian crisis. Israeli authorities periodically shut down the crossings into Gaza, preventing the flow of people, medical cases and essential commodities, including food.
The remaining parts of the so-called Palestine has been under total external blockade for the past 17 years, making the Palestinian livelihood miserable beyond comprehension.
Israel by end of September 2023 provoked the Hamas liberation organisation of Palestine by continuously entering the Al Aqsa Mosque and desecrating without any explicable reason the third holiest Mosque of the Muslims worldwide! It was under such highly emotionally unacceptable circumstances that Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Commenting on the attack the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said; Hamas attack did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing. Israel responded most brutally and disproportionately by committing heinous acts of murder amounting to genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – indiscriminate aerial bombing killing so far more than 9000 Palestinians, one third of them children and more than 2000 women, destroying hospitals , mass scale flattening more than 60 percent of the buildings ,depriving water, food, fuel and medicines to cite few crimes.
Palestinians resorted to violence for their rights and dignity while Israel is committing genocide to ethnic cleanse Palestinians, take over Gaza and colonise the area with Jews. Under such circumstances, can we call Hamas a terrorist organization, while State terrorism by a State born out of terrorism continues ruthlessly protected from adverse publicity by most of the Western media? Who is the terrorist in the Israeli war in Gaza?
Singar A. Velan / November 10, 2023
History aside, on the current equilibrium, Haaretz has a brilliant piece:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-08/ty-article/.premium/one-month-into-gaza-war-israel-is-experiencing-a-moment-that-transcends-politics/0000018b-afbe-d3c1-a39b-bfff853a0000
Doesn’t the symbiotic relationship between an oppressor and a militant group — who need each other to hold power over their own communities — sound familiar?
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chiv / November 11, 2023
SAV, thank you so much for addressing this pressing issue. There are reports indicating top three leaders of Hamas who are currently residing in Qatar, are wealthy Billionaires. They’re not just provided shelter but all comforts including private jets to travel, and financed heavily by Qatari Govt. The same Qatari govt also stationed thousands of U.S soldiers ( symbiotic relationship). Do anyone really believe that U.S cannot take out any of them????? Hamas has no interest in real governance or even getting basic facility like electricity or water to those suffering Palestinians. In a live interview one of the Hamas leader told , “their wish is to keep the war / conflict permanent. It’s obvious why Hamas doesn’t want to seethe end of this conflict. Other than collecting funds, these leaders are well funded by the Qatari govt. Hope Mr. LF and pseudo/ global human rights champions in CT can clear this matter, so that there is no need for me to provide the reports / source.
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chiv / November 11, 2023
According to reports three top Hamas leaders alone have a staggering fortune of 11 Billion USD. Ismail Haniyeh and Khaleel Mashal are each worth more than 4 Billion and Moussa Abu Marzuk is worth more three Billion. It’s believed annual turn over of Hamas is more than a Billion. These leaders have been maintaining their lavish life style in Qatar, which provides a safe heaven for them. All three leaders are frequently seen among diplomatic circles, travelling in their private jets. Qatar supports them with annual financial aid other than safe heaven. In a series of live interviews these leaders expressed little desire to govern Gaza, instead wanting the war with Israel to remain permanent. Hamas media advisor Taher El -Nounou told ” I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all borders and that the Arab world will stand with us”.
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Ajith / November 10, 2023
It is good that Latheef Farook pointed out in Paragraph 1 that Jewish population in Palestine in 1904 was less than 5% which is similar to the population of Sinhalese in the North East of Sri Lanka based on Census 1881. Latheef also justifies that PLO or Hamas armed struggle as well as unarmed struggle for self determination and blaming Israel as Terrorists. I am sure Latheef and other Muslim Journalists will have the same policy about Sinhalese state.
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Pandi Kutti / November 11, 2023
No, they don’t, as their fake Arab converted Thamizh Dravidian immigrant population from South India immensely benefitted from this policy of marginalization and structural genocide of the island’s Thamizh. Both native and Indian origin. Especially in the Thamizh east, where thousands of Thamizh were ethnically cleansed and chased off and this is still going on especially in the Trincomalee district, where they are being selectively targeted both by the occupying racist Chingkalla armed forces police and the racist illegal Chingkalla settlers, but also by these fake Arab Islamic fanatics, who arrived in the Thamizh east a few centuries ago as refugees, fleeing Portuguese and later Chingkalla persecution claiming to be Thamizh. They are constantly coming here on a steady stream, posting and lamenting about the Arab Palestinian plight in the name of Islam but in the case of their fellow non-Muslim Christian and Hindu Thamizh, with whom they share far more, blood, origin, ethnicity, language, heritage, they join the Chingkalla state and racists and participated in their marginalization, structural genocide and war crimes committed on them. If he is bringing percentages what you stated is correct the Chingkallams were less than 5% in the east and less than 1% in the north in the 1904 census and every place town, river, hill, village in the north and east had a Thamizh name.
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Pandi Kutti / November 11, 2023
The history Hindu or Buddhist was Thamizh, and all its ancient rulers were Thamizh. Not Chingkallam or Muslim. This is why the British declared these as the ancient homeland of the Thamizh.
The Trincomalee district even in the 1970s was electing two Thamizh MPs and one Muslim and now reduced to one and very soon like in the case of Amparai no Thamizh representation, due to systematic calculated ethnic cleansing and chasing away of Thamizh from this strategic region and settling it with outside Chingkallams and Muslims. As pe rthe 1950s census the island had 66% Chingkallam 26% Thamizh and around 5.6% Muslim. Now 75% Chingkallam 16% Tamil and10% Muslim. Within 70 years of independence the Chingkalla percentage has increased from 66% to 75% the Muslim percentage has doubled and the Thamizh percentage drastically reduced from 26% to 16% due to forced deportation of Indian origin estate Thamizh who had lived on the island for 200 years and chasing away over a million indigenous Eezham Thamizh largely to the west and the trend is still continuing, with the west and Indian giving overt and covert support to this, whilst just shedding crocodile tears about the plight of the island’s Thamizh. They will soon learn their lesson for their treachery and what they did to the Thamizh.
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Pandi Kutti / November 11, 2023
It is the Thamizh population living in the north and east that is still safeguarding India’s southern shores and once they are gone you will have another story. Constantly coming here and crying about Palestine in the name of Islam but being quiet and giving support the marginalization of your own fellow Thamizh by the Sri Lankan state again in the name of Islam and an imagined Arab origin, that everyone knows is a lie and even the Arabs have stated they hardly have is a joke and the height of hypocrisy. Charity begins at home and people in glass houses should not throw stones on others.
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Raj-UK / November 11, 2023
I don’t condone violence, nor, the injustice on Palestinians but Hamas is a terror organisation & the massacre of 1400 civilians & dehumanisation of hostages cannot be ignored. Whether Israel is the aggressor or not is immaterial but in this case, Israel has the obligation to ensure the safe return of its citizens taken hostage & has repeatedly said that the bombing will stop when the hostages are released. If Israel backs down now, it will be a sign of weakness, therefore, has no choice. The same situation prevailed in SL not so long ago. Disregarding international pressure, SL military bombed the North to eliminate LTTE. Many civilians were caught in the crossfire, just as the Palestinians but I can’t remember Muslim journalists strongly condoning the military offensive. Now it seems the muslim journalists are more concerned about their ‘brothers & sisters’ living in far away country than their fellow citizens. Afterall, everybody born in SL, irrespective of religious beliefs or ethnicity, are citizens of the same country which bonds them. Maybe the muslim journalists, knowing which side the bread is buttered, didn’t want to offend the rulers or does religion binds them more than their neighbours?
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LankaScot / November 12, 2023
Hello Raj-UK,
Civilians in the North were not “caught in the crossfire”, they were indiscriminately bombed and shelled. The Rajapaksa government was so frightened of the truth getting out, following the Channel 4 documentary, that they banned UK personnel from visiting the North. We wanted to visit my sister-in-Law in Anuradhapura, during my first visit in 2013, but were advised that British visitors were not welcome. I managed to visit Anuradhapura on a subsequent visit where I saw soldiers driving tractors and doing agricultural jobs- very surreal for a British National.
There were likely around 800,000 demonstrators in London that fundamentally disagree with your take on the barbaric Israeli destruction of Gaza and the inhuman killing of Palestinian men women and children in hospitals, homes, refugee camps, on the roads (what’s left of them) and everywhere else. The lies that the Israeli Government tells and is disseminated by the Western Press and others is very reminiscent of Rajapksa’s attempts to bury the truth – see below
https://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-corrupted-journalism-and-channel-4-news
When the Israeli Government makes statements they go unchallenged by most of the Western Media. When the Gazan Health Ministry gave casualty figures Biden and others immediately challenged them.
To be Continued
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LankaScot / November 12, 2023
Continued
The Apartheid against the Palestinians perpetrated by the Israelis permeates throughout the Western Governments and Media. There is little or no “fact checking” of what the Israelis say. Even this week they have quietly backtracked on the supposed 1400 killed by Hamas on the 7th October. Apparently about 200 or so were Hamas fighters. Is Biden questioning these figures? How many Journalists have been killed by the Israelis in Gaza and the West Bank? Biden even asked Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, to get Al Jazeera to tone down their coverage of the war. The Israelis had previously assassinated one of Al Jazeera’s journalists in Jenin. At least 40 Journalists and many members of their families have been killed in Gaza since October 7th. I worked in Qatar for 11 years. I have seen Humanitarian Aid loaded onto planes in the American Airbase, destined for Gaza. Does anyone really think that the US would allow their base to be used for the transport of weapons to Hamas? The American President should call for (and demand) an immediate ceasefire and the unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli Armed Forces from Gaza.
Best Regards
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RBH59 / November 12, 2023
Displacing Palestinian Perpetrating Poverty making this a object of terrorization
China is neutral as it knows the history who created Hamas against other groups, Hamas would not exist in its current form without Israeli involvement. There are two sides to every story. Land blockade of periodically shut down the crossings into Gaza, preventing the flow of people, medical cases and essential commodities, including food for perpetrating Poverty to the worst form of violence and to blame Palestine.
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