February 6, 2024
For several
weeks, the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip has witnessed intense
Israeli bombardment by ground and air, as well as fierce clashes between
Israeli forces and Hamas fighters. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
announced last week that the army had successfully dismantled Hamas’
capabilities in the city — a claim Israel made earlier about Gaza City in the
north, only to be proven wrong. But in Khan Younis, as in the rest of Gaza, it
is we civilians who are bearing the brunt of the violence.
Israeli tanks
have besieged two of the most important hospitals still partially functioning
in southern Gaza: Nasser and Al-Amal. Both are located in the western part of
Khan Younis, and have been overwhelmed since the war began not only with the
influx of patients but also with families seeking shelter after having been
displaced from the northern parts of the Strip. Israeli forces opened fire at
the more than 8,000 displaced people sheltering in the vicinity of Nasser
Hospital, and bulldozed graves in the adjacent cemetery — one of at least 16
cemeteries that Israel has desecrated during its operation in Gaza.
Israeli tanks
also penetrated the vicinity of Al-Aqsa University at the western edge of the
city, near the previously designated “safe zone” of Al-Mawasi; targeted the UN
Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Training Center, one of the largest shelters in
all of Gaza which had been accommodating up to 40,000 displaced people; and
completely surrounded the western part of Khan Younis refugee camp.
The Israeli army
dropped leaflets ordering residents to evacuate Khan Younis, and in recent days
some 120,000 Palestinians have fled the city through a supposedly “safe
corridor” spanning from the west of the refugee camp to the area of Al-Mawasi
near Al-Aqsa University. The passage through this corridor, however, which is
made up of three Israeli military checkpoints, has for many Palestinians been
one of the most harrowing ordeals since the war began.
According to
testimonies from Palestinians who have made the journey, including one of the
authors, those passing through the corridor were forced to chant slogans
against Hamas, many had their belongings confiscated, and men were separated
from their families, stripped, and subjected to hours of physical abuse and
deprivation. All the while, thousands remain trapped inside Khan Younis, unable
to leave their shelters out of fear of being shot on the streets.
Ibtisam’s
testimony
I was not
intending to leave Khan Younis. Having fled Gaza City at the start of the war
with my husband and two children upon the orders of the occupation army, we
sought refuge first in al-Shati refugee camp and then we were forced to flee
again to Khan Younis, which was considered a safe area. We moved around between
different residences in the city before finding a room to rent. As the ground
invasion of the city commenced, we decided we weren’t going to flee again.
But we were soon
forced to change our minds. In the early hours of Jan. 26, the apartment behind
ours was bombed, causing debris to fall onto our residence. This incident
instilled panic and fear in us. That same night, two more apartments on our
street and over 20 apartments in the whole neighborhood of Al-Amal were
targeted, while tanks positioned near Al-Amal Hospital intermittently launched
shells in our direction and unmanned quadcopter drones repeatedly fired at
people on the streets.
Faced with this
situation, we decided we had to leave — especially after the army dropped
leaflets over the schools near Nasser Hospital, ordering the thousands of
displaced people seeking refuge there to evacuate. At around 10:15 a.m., a Red
Cross vehicle arrived to announce the opening of a “safe corridor,” and we
joined thousands of people seeking to pass through it.
The passage
involved crossing three Israeli military checkpoints. The whole time, we were
subjected to a great deal of insults, curses, and humiliation — directed toward
ourselves and our mothers — by an army officer who was fluent in Arabic. For me
and my children it took over an hour and a half; for my husband it took nearly
nine.
At the first
checkpoint, we were ordered to raise our identity cards for photographing by a
soldier, while tanks moved menacingly toward us. We continued on to the second,
where the army separated men from women and instructed us to kneel. Then, an
officer began to lecture us, blaming Hamas for our displacement, the
destruction of our homes, our need to seek refuge, and the fear we are
experiencing.
He then told us
that in order to be allowed to pass through the checkpoint unharmed, we had to
chant slogans against the resistance: “The people want the overthrow of Hamas,”
and “God is sufficient for us, and he is the best disposer of affairs against Hamas
and the Qassam Brigades” (appropriating a line from the Qur’an). The officer
insisted on the repetition of these slogans; only after more than 45 minutes
did the soldiers permit women and children to pass, while men were kept behind.
At the third
checkpoint, a soldier told me that in order to proceed I must leave my bag
behind — which contained all of my belongings, including blankets and clothes
for my whole family. The soldier then told me to part with my children so they
could pass through before me. I refused, fearing that I would lose them in the
crowd, and he eventually allowed me to cross with them. Others lost their
children and faced great distress while searching for them.
I exited the
corridor around noon, then faced the most difficult hours of my life as I
waited for my husband to emerge. Seven hours later, he was permitted to pass
through — following a journey filled with humiliation and infringements on his
dignity, all in rainy and extremely cold conditions.
‘Our dignity was
violated for over six hours’
The joy of
56-year-old Umm Mohammed Jakhlab was indescribable when her two sons emerged
from the final checkpoint in the corridor out of Khan Younis. She had been
sitting near the crossing for nearly six hours awaiting their arrival.
“My only sons,
Mohammed and Ibrahim — I raised them after their father’s martyrdom until they
became young men,” she told +972. “I wish to find joy in their lives and
witness their marriages. They are my entire life. I felt my heart sinking the
moment I left them at the checkpoint with the army and walked out alone.”
Hours passed for
Jakhlab as if they were days, the tears not drying from her eyes as she waited
at the end of the crossing. Despite the sound of Israeli soldiers firing
machine guns from tanks nearby, she did not leave until her sons finally
emerged.
Ibrahim was
shivering when he arrived. The army had forced him to strip naked, including
his underwear, despite the cold and rainy weather. He was then ordered to step
into a pool of water, jump up and down multiple times, and then get out and
stand for 10 minutes before being allowed to put on his clothes and cross the
checkpoint.
“We were
humiliated extensively after the soldiers scanned our eyes [with a biometric
camera],” Ibrahim recounted. “The treatment we faced surpassed degradation. Our
dignity was violated for over six hours as we sat on our knees, forbidden from
sitting comfortably.” Throughout this ordeal, Ibrahim’s only concern was a
quick exit, fearing for his mother who he knew would be agonizing to see them
again.
Khaled Zaqout,
25, described this experience as one of the worst of his life. He had been
sheltering at Qandila School, near Nasser Hospital, with his wife and son, and
decided to leave the city after the army dropped leaflets overhead ordering
them to evacuate immediately. “The targeting did not stop over the past three
days, and a nearby school was hit, causing the death of some refugees and
wounding others,” he told +972.
After entering
the corridor to leave Khan Younis, Zaqout was first forced to abandon his
backpack, which contained his work laptop, mobile phone, and clothes. “When I
tried to talk to them about the bag, they insulted me and my mother,” he
recounted. “They ordered me to leave without further complaints.”
While his wife
and son were permitted to cross through the checkpoint, Zaqout was held there
“with a large number of men, including young men.” Despite eventually being
allowed through, he has not yet been able to find his family. “Since my exit, I
have been searching for my wife and son,” he explained. “Forced to leave my
mobile phone behind, I lost the means to communicate with them, and my wife
does not know how to navigate the situation without me.”
Zaqout describes
his mental and physical state as very bad — all the more so for having lost the
work that he kept on his electronic devices. “I will never forget what I went
through in the past few days,” he said. “We were deliberately humiliated, and forced
to repeat slogans against the resistance and Hamas. All of this happened while
soldiers filmed us on their mobile phones, so they can boast about it by
publishing the footage on social media.”
Zohdiya Qdeih
found herself unable to utter the slogans that the soldiers ordered
Palestinians to chant. She questions the notion of a safe passage when it
involves humiliating unarmed civilians, and pressuring them to say words that
hurt a segment of the Palestinian people.
“The soldier
asked me why I didn’t repeat the slogan,” she recounted to +972. “I remained
silent and did not respond. He said, ‘I know your heart is with them, and you
will not insult them, but they are the ones who brought you into this
situation. They did not stand by you, and you will not find any place to
shelter after leaving this checkpoint; all of [the population of] Gaza City is
in Rafah.’”
Qdeih emphasizes
that many of the people repeated the slogans merely to comply with the soldiers
and safely cross the checkpoint. “Our hearts are with the resistance in all its
actions, and with the steadfastness on the ground, despite being displaced from
one place to another,” she added.
‘A safe area is
suddenly transformed into a war zone’
Bahaa Wadi, a
35-year-old from the western part of Khan Younis refugee camp, reluctantly fled
through the corridor in recent days to the southern part of Al-Mawasi, near
Rafah. “We felt that we were safe [in the camp],” he told +972. “We had more
than 20 displaced people from Gaza City staying with us in our home for more
than three months, and the whole camp is crowded with displaced people.
“Suddenly, two
weeks ago, tanks penetrated behind Nasser Hospital and ordered the residents of
the western camp next to the hospital to evacuate,” Wadi continued. “We heard
the sounds of shells and fighting throughout the day and night.”
Despite some of
his family fleeing the city to live in tents in Al-Mawasi, Wadi was intent on
staying. “Living in tents is too difficult in the winter,” he said. But then
the situation escalated: on Jan. 27, Israeli tanks suddenly appeared at the
western entrance to the camp. “They were in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa University
and Al-Khair Hospital, which means that we were besieged.”
At that point,
Wadi and the relatives who were still with him joined those fleeing the city
through the designated corridor. “Thousands were walking along Al-Bahr Street
in the camp, and tanks were standing at its entrance,” he recounted. “People
passed in front of the army, holding up their ID cards and trying to carry some
of their belongings. The children were nervous at the sight of the soldiers,
tanks, and bulldozers.”
After
experiencing several hours of “tension and fear of arrest,” they exited the
corridor and rejoined their family in Al-Mawasi. “We still have concerns about
being displaced again. That is why we chose to go to the Rafah side of
Al-Mawasi instead of the Khan Younis side, because we do not trust the army and
it may bombard the part near Khan Younis with missiles — as it did at the UNRWA
Training College, which led to the killing and wounding of many displaced
people there.”
After being
displaced from her home in Gaza City, 44-year-old Salwa Bakr and eight of her
family members originally took up residence in a tent on the northern side of
Al-Mawasi, just west of Khan Younis refugee camp, before deciding to flee
further south. “We could hear the sounds of shells and missiles. It was never a
completely safe area. We felt the hunger, high prices, and extreme cold in the
area.
“Several days
ago, tanks bombed the UNRWA Training College, which was very close to where we
were staying,” Bakr continued. “We saw the tents of other displaced people
burning, people screaming because of injuries, and people who were killed. It
was a shock to us. A safe area is suddenly transformed into a war zone; they
were not told to evacuate.
“Out of intense
fear due to the continuous bombing and the incursion of tanks behind Al-Aqsa
University, my family and I were displaced to the Al-Mawasi area in Rafah,” she
went on. “We went on foot and saw citizens leaving the western part of Khan
Younis refugee camp crying. We went to Rafah and searched for another tent and
stayed in a tent with another family for two nights before finding a tent of
our own.
“We are living
in difficult circumstances after being displaced for the second time — and we
do not know if this is the last time or not. I hope that the world will help us
by stopping the war. Enough displacement and refugees. Our children need to
live in dignity.”
‘They began
firing shells toward the hospital’
Dr. Khaled Habib
is a consultant in cardiovascular and vascular surgery at Nasser Hospital, the
third largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. More than 90 percent of the staff —
doctors, nurses, technicians, and administrative staff — have fled Khan Younis
out of fear of arrest or to accompany family members. Nonetheless, the
hospital’s emergency department is still receiving hundreds of patients every
day, he told +972 in an interview last week, while the women and childbirth
department is receiving numerous cases of miscarriage on a daily basis due to
wounds or fear.
Discussing the
challenges the hospital is facing, Habib confirmed that the Israeli army was
periodically targeting the hospital’s surrounding area with artillery fire. A
quadcopter drone, he added, was also targeting anyone moving within the
hospital complex, between the buildings of the different departments.
Habib described
the severe shortage of medical supplies, which were already scarce within the
hospital. Moreover, there is no food or drink for hospital staff, patients,
their families, and the displaced people who are still sheltering inside the
hospital due to the siege imposed on its surroundings.
According to
Habib, another problem the hospital is facing is the accumulation of medical
and regular waste in its corridors and yards; there is no means to dispose of
it, posing a serious threat of diseases spreading within the hospital —
especially since dogs and cats have begun rummaging through it.
Habib reported
that between Jan. 21-Feb. 1, the hospital received approximately 157 martyrs
and 450 wounded people, while many more dead and wounded are lying on the
streets out of the reach of ambulance crews who are being targeted by the
Israeli army if they leave the hospital.
Despite Israel’s
tanks withdrawing for a couple of days, they have now returned, and the
hospital’s surroundings are still the target of gunfire by the quadcopter
drone. This has further intensified the pressure on the hospital staff,
impacting their mental well-being due to fear that also extends to their
families, with whom they are unable to communicate due to current communication
difficulties, according to Habib.
Shatha Mahdi, a
30-year-old from the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, is still sheltering
inside Khan Younis’ other major hospital, Al-Amal, with her husband and three
children. “At the beginning of the war, we left our homes and went to the
nearby Al-Quds Hospital in order to escape the intense bombing. But after the
army surrounded the hospital and was very close to our homes, we felt extreme
fear and fled south toward Khan Younis. We have no relatives or friends in this
city, so we resorted to Al-Amal Hospital for shelter.
“We couldn’t
find a spot inside the hospital, but the staff told us we could stay in the
back courtyard,” Mahdi continued. “At first, we felt we were safe. We could
hear the sounds of bombing in the city, but it did not resemble the intensity
of the bombing that we used to feel and hear in Gaza City. But the situation
changed dramatically after the tanks entered Khan Younis a few weeks ago.
“They began
firing shells toward the hospital and into the surrounding homes,” she went on.
“The bombing was violent and frightening, and the drones were firing at
civilians standing near the hospital gate. When my husband had to go out to get
us food, I was scared he would be hit.
“Recently, the
army has increased its targeting of the hospital and is preventing anyone from
leaving. I saw people lying on the ground due to their wounds, either from
bullets or shells. The sounds of the shells are frightening, and the movement
of tanks worries us. We feel that they will attack the hospital at any moment.
“There are
thousands of displaced people in the courtyard with us, and inside the
hospital. People’s voices get louder when the bombing suddenly intensifies.
Children scream in fear and we try to reassure them a little. I hope this
horror will end soon.”
+972 approached
the IDF Spokesperson for comment; their response will be published here when it
is received.
However Bad You Think Israel Is, It’s Worse
So
it turns out the IDF has been running a Telegram channel featuring homemade
snuff films in which Gazans are brutally murdered by Israeli forces, captioned
with celebrations of the gore and pain therein like “Burning their mother… You
won’t believe the video we got! You can hear their bones crunch.” The IDF had
previously denied any association with the channel, but Haaretz now reports
that it was directly run by an IDF psychological warfare unit.
This
is one of those many, many times where Israel is so awful that at first you’re
not sure what you’re looking at. You think you must be misreading the report.
Then you read it again and go “Oh wow, that’s SO much worse than I would have
guessed.”
However
bad you think Israel is, you can always be sure that information will come out
later that proves it’s even worse.
❖
Tucker
Carlson has been spotted in Moscow, generating speculation that he’s there to
interview President Vladimir Putin, and the liberal commentariat are losing
their minds about it.
There’s
no valid basis for westerners to object to Putin being interviewed by a western
pundit. There’s no moral basis because Israeli officials have had unfettered
access to a wildly sympathetic western press throughout four months of
administering an active genocide. There’s no basis on the grounds that it hurts
US information interests, because that would be admitting that US information
interests depend on hiding information from the public about matters as basic
as what a foreign leader thinks about his own actions, and essentially
acknowledging that the western media are supposed to function as propaganda
services for US military and intelligence agencies.
Every
possible objection is also a confession about what the US empire and its media
actually are.
❖
Americans:
healthcare please
US
government: Sorry did you say bomb Syria, Iraq and Yemen in facilitation of an
active genocide?
Americans:
no, healthcare
US
government: Alright you drive a hard bargain but let’s go bomb Syria, Iraq and
Yemen in facilitation of an active genocide.
❖
Biden
isn’t technically lying when he says the US does not seek conflict in the
middle east. The US seeks DOMINATION in the middle east, and would prefer to
receive that domination willingly from submissive subjects. Only when middle
easterners refuse to submit is there conflict.
❖
The
US has never done anything good for the middle east. All it’s brought to the
region is a bunch of murderous military operations and the nonstop murderous
military operation that is the state of Israel.
❖
Setting
up a bunch of military bases in countries on the other side of the planet and
then going to war with anyone who tries to kick them out is pretty much the
exact opposite of how a sane and ethical military would be used.
❖
US
foreign policy is essentially one big long war against disobedience. Bombing,
regime changing, starving and destabilizing any population anywhere on earth
who dares to insist on its own self-sovereignty instead of letting itself be
absorbed into the folds of the global empire.
They
call different parts of it the Israel-Hamas War, the Iraq War, the War on
Terror, but really it’s all the same war: the war on disobedience. One long
operation to brutalize the global population into obedience and submission,
year after year, decade after decade.
❖
When
it comes to Israel the main difference between liberals and conservatives is
that conservatives support Israel because they like it when Muslims get
murdered while liberals support Israel because mumble mumble something
something antisemitism Israel has a right to defend itself but we have serious
concerns about the humanitarian HEY LOOK OVER THERE IT’S TRUMP!
❖
If
the Gaza genocide had happened pre-internet it would’ve been a fringe issue
hardly anyone knew about. The western press would have been able to get away
with exponentially more cover-ups of Israeli crimes, western politicians
would’ve been able to get away with way more lies about what’s really
happening, Israeli officials would have been far less careful about their
statements of genocidal intent in their own media, and the IDF would’ve been
vastly more blatant and obvious about its extermination campaign.
It’s
only because normal people are getting eyes into what’s really happening that
this issue is subject to worldwide outcry and condemnation that has placed the
empire on the back foot. The political/media class never does the right thing
because it wants to, it does the right thing when it is forced to by normal
human beings with healthy consciences. The fate of humanity rests on the
ability of ordinary people to freely circulate truth.
Senate Progressives Seek to Hold Israel Accountable
Two
Bills with Limited Support
For
those who are dismayed and disturbed by Israel’s disproportionate response to
the Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7 last year, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley and
other progressive Senate Democrats are fighting their battle. They have been
pushing for Senate action that would tie further US military aid to Israel on
Israel’s adherence to international and US humanitarian law.
Israel’s
abuses of the law have been commonplace in recent months. US 2000-pound bombs
and other weapons have pulverized cities, hospitals, and villages in Gaza,
bringing the civilian death toll of Palestinians to more than 27,000,
two-thirds of whom are said to be women and children.
Two
specific actions in the Senate are relevant here, both supported by Merkley.
One
is a resolution put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders that would have required the
State Department to report within 30 days on any Israeli violations of human
rights. The resolution received only 11 votes, indicating that even most
Democrats would not go along with monitoring Israel’s behavior.
The
other is an amendment to a supplemental military assistance bill authored by
Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland that would require the President and the
State Department to investigate and report to Congress on any country’s abuse
of non-defensive US military aid, such as those bombs sent to Israel, in
violation of international and US humanitarian law. The amendment has yet to be
voted on.
Interviewed
by The New Yorker, Senator Merkley, who has visited Gaza during the fighting,
said of his motivation for supporting these kinds of inquiries: “I have been
deeply disturbed by the enormous number of deaths, the enormous number of
injuries, the hugely inadequate supply of humanitarian aid, and the massive
dislocation of the Gaza and Palestinian population.”
Yet
very few Democratic Senators, let alone Republicans, seem eager to support
either bill, even though both are rather mild. The Sanders bill is exclusively
focused on Israel, which is problematic for some Democrats. Yet all the bill
does is require reporting.
The
Van Hollen amendment applies to all countries, not just Israel, but it too
gives to the administration rather than to Congress the initiative on reporting
on Israel’s actions with US weapons. Neither bill actually conditions present
or future US military aid on Israel’s compliance with humanitarian law and
human rights by making clear the link between violations and aid. Still, the
Van Hollen amendment is very unlikely to survive a Senate vote.
The
Underlying Issues
Merkley
understands that underlying the resistance to taking strong action to limit
Israel’s wartime behavior is the longstanding taboo against it. So is the
counterpart to criticizing Israel: rejecting an independent Palestinian state.
As Merkley says:
“It is time to pivot, to recognize
that we need to work with Israel, and the international community, in a much
more forceful way toward the vision of two states for two peoples. So some of
my colleagues are still coming from the vision of, Never suggest that anything
is wrong, and, Never suggest a criticism. But, for many of us, that plan has
failed, and it’s time for a more assertive, determined collaboration between
the United States, Israel, and the Arab League toward producing two states for
two peoples.”
When
Senators Merkley and Van Hollen traveled to Israel, they visited the Rafah
crossing in the south. Merkley came back with very critical observations about
the pitiful flow of aid into Gaza, often held up for days or rejected outright
by Israeli inspectors. “Before October 7th,” he said,
“more
than five hundred trucks would regularly pass each day into Gaza. Why, given
the human calamity, can’t there be a lot more trucks passing now? Even just two
weeks ago, it averaged, I believe, around a hundred and fifty trucks per day.
Wholly insufficient.”
The
process should only take one day. Merkley concludes:
“Certainly
my impression is that Israel, knowing that they were able to inspect and
deliver 500 trucks into Gaza before October 7th, could certainly inspect and
deliver 500 trucks by tomorrow, if they were determined to do so.”
Conditioning
US Aid
Merkley,
Van Hollen, and 20 other Democrats wrote a letter to Biden February 1 with
seven concrete suggestions for improving and increasing the flow of
humanitarian assistance. The group is almost double the size of the original
Van Hollen Amendment co-sponsors with important new signers, some of whom are
especially close to President Biden.
As
an inducement to Israel’s implementation of these measures, the Senate group
should support conditioning the transfer of US non-defensive weapons, as
authorized in the Supplemental Appropriation, on Israeli compliance with the
proposed actions.
The
Senators’ observations have even more relevance now, since Israel has indicated
that Rafah, where roughly half the Gaza population has been pushed, is going to
be the next center of the Israeli offensive. We can expect that many Gazans
will be unable to flee yet again, ensuring that the already unconscionable
death toll will be higher still.
Israel’s Claims Against UN Relief Agency Lack Evidence
An
Israeli dossier that more than a dozen countries have cited to justify cutting
off funding to the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency “provides no
evidence” that a small number of the key U.N. aid body’s employees were
involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, according to an investigation released
Monday by the British outlet Channel 4.
The
dossier merely states that
“from intelligence information,
documents, and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting, it is
now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist
operatives who serve as UNRWA employees.”
“More
than 10 UNRWA staffers took part in the events of [Oct. 7],” reads the six-page
dossier, which Israel provided to UNRWA donor countries — including the
agency’s top contributor, the United States — shortly after the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down an interim decision ordering Israel to take
concrete steps to prevent genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The
ICJ instructed the Israeli government to ensure that sufficient humanitarian
assistance flows to desperate and starving Gazans, but Israel’s allegations
against UNRWA employees led at least 16 countries to suspend funding for the
agency, the most critical aid body operating in the Palestinian enclave.
Around
a million displaced Gazans are currently sheltering at facilities run by UNRWA,
which has 13,000 employees across the strip.
The
UNRWA is reportedly set to lose $65 million by the end of February as donors’
funding cuts take effect, imperiling the agency’s operations in Gaza and across
the Middle East.
Channel
4 noted Monday that all 13,000 of UNRWA’s Gaza employees’ names “have been
checked against the U.N. terrorism list and, as recently as last May, were
vetted and approved by Israel.”
The
UNRWA quickly fired nine of the employees named by Israel. On Monday, U.N.
Secretary-General António Guterres established “an independent review group to
assess whether the agency is doing everything within its power to ensure
neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are
made.”
The
Daily Beast also obtained a copy of the Israeli dossier and — similar to
Channel 4 — reported Tuesday that it “includes little evidence to back up”
Israel’s allegations against UNRWA employees.
Ashish
Prashar, a spokesperson for Gaza Voices, said in response to the new reporting
that “we now know that the document used to suspend funding to UNRWA ‘provides
no evidence.'”
“This
is the latest campaign in a decades-long attack on UNRWA by Israel and a subset
of the broader campaign to eliminate the Palestinian refugee issue,” said
Prashar.
“People
in Gaza are starving, and because of spurious allegations made in a dodgy
dossier, they will experience worse hunger. This scandal should lead to
resignations from officials in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and elsewhere who all
suspended funding to a besieged people experiencing a genocide as a result of a
baseless accusation by the génocidaires themselves.”
Jeremy
Scahill, a senior correspondent at The Intercept‘s criticized the Biden
administration and The Wall Street Journal for characterizing the dossier as
“some smoking gun.”
During
a press conference last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the
allegations in the dossier “highly, highly credible.”
The
same day as Blinken’s remarks, the Journal ran a story stating that around 10
percent of UNRWA’s Gaza employees “have ties to Islamist militant groups,”
pointing to an “intelligence dossier.”
But
questions about the reliability of the purported intelligence cited in the
Israeli dossier have been swirling since the details of its contents began to
trickle out in the press late last month. Citing one unnamed senior Israeli
official, Axios reported that “the intelligence is a result of interrogations
of militants who were arrested during the Oct. 7 attack.”
Israeli
forces have repeatedly been accused by U.N. experts and human rights groups of
using torture to extract forced confessions from Palestinian detainees.
“The
fact that the U.S., U.K. and several other Western governments instantly
attacked UNRWA on the orders of a genocidal foreign government (based on bogus
claims) should make you very worried about your own democracy,” Craig Mokhiber,
a former U.N. official who resigned over the global institution’s failure to
stop Israel’s assault on Gaza, wrote Tuesday.
Netanyahu’s
War Crimes Fuel Antisemitism on the Left and the Right
Let’s face it. Israel under
PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi), isn’t helping the fight against global
Antisemitism, and is fueling the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) Movement. The
war crimes in Gaza have been augmented by a recent conference led by Bibi, to
re-colonize Gaza with renewed Haredim settlements. It featured National
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir telling the crowd, “They (the Palestinians)
must be encouraged to leave voluntarily.” That is a euphemism for repeatedly
bombing civilians out of their homes, while killing over 26,000, and inflicting
life-altering wounds on thousands more. Before being elevated to Bibi’s
government, Ben-Gvir was a member of outlawed Kach Party, the Israeli
equivalent of the Proud Boys. The audacity of timing is shocking, just days after
the International Court of Justice (The Hague) handed down a preliminary
injunction against Israel for war crimes in Gaza, and the start date for Bibi’s
criminal trial – a bloodier form of Bread and Circus.
Bibi’s war
crimes have fueled an explosion in global Antisemitism on the Left, while
Donald Trump stokes it from the right. Most of the world, including many Jews;
don’t distinguish between Zionism as a mutated political philosophy from
Judaism, the religion. Now the American material and financial support of the
Israeli war machine is deeply hurting President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.
The US has enabled Israel since it supplanted Great Britain and France as
Israel’s protectors after the failed 1956 Suez invasion. The unwillingness of
the US to divorce itself from Israel, and many Jews to divorce Judaism from
Zionism, is strengthening Antisemitism. It is also inadvertently helping
Trump’s bid to re-take the presidency.
Antisemitism has
been a social disease for about 2,024 years, if not longer. In the wake of
Trump’s presidency and metastasizing political movement, it is globally
stronger and more visible than any time since WWII. His leadership has
empowered not only Fascists in the US, but authoritarian dictators and movement
globally. Most destructive is how Trump and Bibi have cross-promoted one
another’s quest for fascist dictatorships.
At the same
time, Jewish Americans have been subjected to the “Great Replacement”
Conspiracy Theory. Some on the MAGA far right have adopted it. At
Charlottesville, pro-Trump Neo-Nazis chanted “Jews will not Replace us.”
As Juan Cole
wrote recently, “In 2021, [Rep. Elise] Stefanik began taking up the talking
points of the Great Replacement Theory. It holds that wealthy Jewish
businessmen are bringing in immigrants from the Global South to replace white
workers, since the immigrants will work more cheaply. Stefanik perhaps did not
utter the phrase, but she appealed to all the dog whistles of this odious
theory. Marianna Sotomayor noted last year at the Washington Post that Stefanik
put out campaign ads saying, “Radical Democrats are planning their most
aggressive move yet: a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION . . . Their plan to
grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current
electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.” Guess who
the “radical Democrats” might be, to which she refers? Could they possibly be
people such as, oh, I don’t know, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Rep. Jerry Nadler
(D-NY), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and other Jewish American legislators who have
worked for immigration reform?”
Antisemitism has
also become a 3rd Rail in American politics, with many elected officials
intimidated from weighing in either way. That’s the case in the City of
Oakland, where I live. The Mayor’s Office, City Administrator, HR Division and
City Council members have all ignored a week’s worth of inquiries, requesting
to discuss the visible rise of Antisemitism in City government and the Oakland
Unified School District. Dozens of Jewish families have withdrawn their
children in response to hostility. Some people on the fringe left, including
public employees in Oakland are arguing that, “the October 7 attack was a
‘false flag’ staged by Israel – likely with help from the Americans — to
justify genocide in Gaza.” This is a gross characterization born out of willful
ignorance.
The new
Antisemitism from the left may actually be more dangerous than the traditional,
garden-variety brand, embraced by the far-far right. October 7 denial is more
dangerous than Holocaust denial, which has fueled Antisemitism on the extreme
right for decades. Cyber-Well, a non-profit devoted to countering Antisemitism
online cautioned, “Whereas Holocaust denial at its height was limited to fringe
academic circles and extremist hate groups who gained a limited following
through traditional media, conferences, and papers, today social media
platforms provide an algorithmically enhanced stage to disseminate the
Antisemitic narrative of October 7 denial directly into the mainstream from a
select few influential accounts.” The denialist POV is ignorant about some very
important things: 1.) Hamas is NOT Islam and indeed committed atrocious war
crimes that violate Islam’s Shari’a code. 2.) Zionism is NOT Judaism, but a
mutant ideology that strayed far from its secular, agrarian ideals under a
series of corrupt politicians. The Gaza War crimes are afoul of Halacha (Jewish
law), as Hamas is of Shari’a.
Counterintuitively,
the compulsion for unquestioned American support for Israel is now driven more
by US Evangelicals than Jews, as more Jews turn away from Zionism. To many
Jews, the Temple Sunday School myth that Israel MUST be a central focus of
Judaism is invalid. Since October 7, more Jews than ever have stopped
supporting Israel. Anti-zionism, as the concept has evolved, does not mean
dismantling the State of Israel, but demanding a Palestinian State alongside
it. Zionism began as a non-nationalist, secular agrarian movement, without any
rhetoric about Jewish Nationalism or fulfilling Biblical prophecy.
October 7
denialism is not so different from January 6 denialism. One promotes and
advocates violence against the US government, and the other violently
marginalizes a vital sector of the American population – Jews in this case. The
ugliness of this false narrative resulted in an atmosphere of unfettered
anti-Jewish sentiments, clothed in objections to Israel.
I’ve openly
taken Israel to task for its gross war crimes since the late 1970’s, and I have
formally dissociated myself from Zionism. So I am making this critique from a
progressive POV.
Reasonable
objectors were shouted down and verbally abused at a recent City Council
meeting.
The “false flag”
promoted by leftists denies some very obvious war crimes, which have been
well-documented in Hamas and Israeli videos, plus independent media outlets. As
for validating the horrors inflicted on Israeli women, it’s been well
documented, but is somehow ignored even by groups devoted to protecting women.
Oakland and all municipalities in the Bay Area make it a priority to protect
women, promote women’s safety and services. We can expect city employees to
show the same concern for Jewish lives. Decrying the atrocities of the Gaza
campaign and standing for Palestinian rights are worthy causes that are
cheapened by denying the basic facts of the horrific terrorist attack launched
by Hamas militants on October 7.
Greater-Israel
Advocates see Gaza Crisis as Opportunity for Expansion
Storrs, CT (Special to Informed
Comment; Feature) – The media rightly focused attention on a recent “packed
gathering” of Israeli leaders and citizens discussing their support for
returning Israeli settlers to the Gaza Strip, where they have not been since
Israel’s disengagement in 2005.
More generally, for the past four
months, some ministers in the Israeli government and their many supporters have
viewed the brutal Hamas attack on Israel as an opportunity to advance the
Greater Israel agenda of settlement expansion and Palestinian dispossession.
Successful movements, like the Israeli right, kick into high gear for those
unexpected moments when dramatic political and territorial change is suddenly
possible.
From a Greater Israel perspective,
there are at least four potential transformational aspects of this Israeli
military barrage.
First, Israel is making Gaza
uninhabitable. Almost 2 million Palestinians have been displaced from their
homes. The cultural, educational, food, health care, and road systems – all
essential for basic life – have been severely damaged. Perhaps 50 to 60% of
structures in Gaza have been damaged and destroyed, including about 65,000
residential units. Thus, the damage already done could influence the post-war
distribution of land and people even without further Israeli policy decisions.
Second, Israel could block or drag
out Palestinian return to certain parts of Gaza. For example, in mid-December,
an Israeli media outlet reported the IDF would maintain “a considerable
military presence” in northern Gaza even after the intense warfighting ended.
The report did also note that that could be coupled with a gradual process to
allow back some Palestinians. On January 22, a Hamas attack killed tens of
Israeli soldiers as they prepared to demolish buildings to clear a future
buffer zone.
Third, Israel could press
Palestinians to leave Gaza altogether and resettle elsewhere such as Egypt or
in Arab Gulf countries. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called
for “voluntary emigration.” On X (formerly twitter), National Security Minister
Itamar Ben-Gvir endorsed, “the migration of hundreds of thousands from Gaza.”
Some have pointed to a leaked proposal from Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence
that would send Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
has publicly distanced himself from the idea but privately indicated support in
a Likud meeting: “Our problem is [finding] countries that are willing to absorb
Gazans, and we are working on it.” Relatedly, there was a report of Israeli
government talks with the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a possible
destination.
In a November 19 op-ed, the Israeli
Minister of Intelligence, Gila Gamliel, openly advocated for Palestinian
resettlement outside Gaza specifically in the context of this opportune moment,
writing, ”Albert Einstein was quoted as saying: ‘In the midst of every crisis,
lies great opportunity.’”
Fourth, there are the Israelis
mentioned earlier who are calling for re-establishing Israeli civilian
settlements in Gaza. Ben-Gvir called the return of Jewish settlement in Gaza
“an important thing.” A coalition of 11 Israeli organizations met to rally public
support for the idea and lobby political leaders. In a mid-November poll, 44%
of Israeli respondents supported Israeli settlement renewal in Gaza while 39%
opposed.
Taken together, these steps would
solidify Israeli control over additional territory and reduce the number of
Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. All these measures are
fully consistent with the ultimate Greater Israel objective: there should only
be one state, a Jewish one, on all the land between the Jordan River and the
Mediterranean Sea.
And the current Israeli effort is
not only in Gaza. Since October 7, the IDF and Israeli settlers have killed
about 370 Palestinians in the West Bank, including in battles between the IDF
and Palestinian militants. Israeli settlers continue to attack and force out
Palestinian civilians, thus seizing more land for Israeli Jews. According to
B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, since early October Israeli
settlers drove out just over 1000 Palestinians, ending the presence of 16 Arab
villages. In East Jerusalem, the pace of the Jerusalem Municipality demolishing
Palestinian homes, already higher in 2023 than 2022, has moved even faster
since October 7.
In other words, Israel is not just
defending itself from the Hamas attack. It could be trying to re-make the
status quo to favor further Israeli demographic and territorial growth at the
expense of Palestinians. Yes, Israel’s motivations for its military policy
include factors such as self-defense, restoring deterrence, “destroying” Hamas,
the emotional desire for revenge, and trying to forcibly turn the Palestinian
public in Gaza against Hamas. But all that said, an important element in some
Israeli thinking is the continuing desire to re-shape the balance of land and
people in support of the maximalist Greater Israel approach.
As noted already, Israel’s prime
minister has publicly rejected some of these ideas, perhaps particularly in the
face of the genocide case before the International Court of Justice. The United
States government, too, has expressed strong opposition, but Israel can
disregard US rhetoric as long as the flow of US arms and provision of
diplomatic cover continue. At a minimum, though, the Greater Israel ideas will
be better developed for when the next opportunity arises.
One danger is that because members
of the Israeli government, with some public support, advocate these ideas, the
changes could come to fruition in whole or in part despite supposed top-level
Israeli and US opposition. We have already seen the concrete impact in the West
Bank. Or, if parts of Gaza already are uninhabitable for months or years due to
the Israeli bombardment, that could have a similar effect on demography and
territorial control.
Moreover, governments do not always
act uniformly, meaning factions could push non-consensual policies. Netanyahu
might view some horse trading as the price for staying in power. A drawn-out
war that facilitates fundamental territorial and demographic change also
extends his term in office. With ongoing war, he avoids being held accountable
either for his pre-existing corruption charges or for Israel’s massive
military-security failure on October 7 and his policy choices that led up to
it. If at some point staying in office means allowing the Greater Israel agenda
to drive the bus, he might well allow it.
The United States is already
struggling to restrain Israel and that is in an environment where US officials
publicly emphasize the defensive nature of Israeli policy. Were the United
States to fully face up to the expansionist aspects of current Israeli policy,
it might recognize that harder-edged pressure is the only way to block Israeli
expansion.
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