I’m going to start personal. I’ve been writing about Israel-Palestine matters publicly for about a decade, non-stop. This week’s events have overwhelmed me like a hurricane, and the fact that only seven days have passed since last Saturday’s surprise attack by Hamas forces seems unfathomable. It feels like many weeks have gone by, the world has just changed. For many, it really has, for many, it just stopped existing.
Many relatives of mine live in the kibbutzes surrounding Gaza. On hearing the news of the attack Saturday morning, I called to get a report. In the one kibbutz where most of them live, there was no ground attack, a few missiles hit, but no casualties. In the other kibbutz where my cousin’s son was, there was a fierce battle only a kilometer from the Gaza fence. He got a bullet in the hand while attempting to defend the kibbutz, he is recovering in hospital. Relative to the hundreds that were massacred and over a hundred taken captive, that is a small casualty. When I asked whether there were any acquaintances among the missing, I was told a student in my brother-in-law’s youth group was missing. Four days ago, her body was identified. As an Israeli nowadays, it is surprising if you don’t know anyone who is somehow affected.
There was shock and frustration in these conversations. How could it happen – and how could it not happen, given the escalations of violence?
And then the response from Israel began – calls to flatten Gaza by various mainstream politicians, the Defense Minister calling all Gazans “human animals” and ordering a “full siege” as if it weren’t enough with the one that has lasted over 16 years, ordering the blockage of all essential goods – water, food, gas, electricity. “We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly,” Yoav Gallant said, a declaration that Israel is going fully genocidal. The army’s head of the occupied territory echoed the message: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell”.
I could hardly write, could hardly think. The support from the Western world was pouring in, including here in Denmark, where the government decided to freeze development funding to Palestine in retaliation for Hamas’s actions, and Germany and Austria did the same. The regurgitated slogans that “Israel has the right to defend itself” have echoed in all these places.
But Palestinians evidently do not have that right.
Israel’s “right to defend itself” is really Israel’s right to massacre Gaza en masse. We’ve seen it happen repeatedly over the past decade and a half. Israel says it will defeat Hamas, and it obliterates entire families because a Hamas member is “suspected” of being nearby.
Is it any wonder that a 10-year-old kid who survives this genocidal round, whose family and home are obliterated, will join the resistance in 10 years’ time to avenge that? Colonized people will rebel when oppressed. More oppression will not stop that.
There is only one way to go, and it must be towards freedom, justice, and equality for Palestinians, as hard as it may seem for many people in my community to accept at this time. My belief in that has not weakened at all.
The “hell” that Israel plans to unleash on Gaza will likely also kill many of the Israeli captives now in Gaza since the drive to revenge by pummeling Gaza appears to supersede their safety. On Friday, Hamas claimed that 13 Israeli hostages had been killed under Israel’s bombings so far. These Israelis could be released through negotiations to release some or many of the over 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners being held by Israel, hundreds of them held without charge. But Israel won’t negotiate. God forbid.
In the 2014 Gaza onslaught, Israeli commander Ofer Winter annihilated Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip with maximum firepower for several hours, killing between 135 and 200 civilians in order to avoid having to negotiate a prisoner exchange after his soldier was presumed captured by Hamas. This policy is called the Hannibal directive and calls for sacrificing a soldier’s life to prevent them from becoming a live bargaining chip. We are now seeing that case multiplied by a hundred.
Six days ago, Israeli army radio announced an “Israeli decision”: “The attacks in Gaza will be executed even at the price of harming the Israeli hostages unless there’s precise intel on their location.” Israel didn’t even have intel on the Hamas offensive. In other words, these people are now also collateral.
And even if one was just thinking about “one’s own” as an Israeli – do we really imagine we will “win,” like Netanyahu says? Do we really think denying Palestinians dignity and treating them as “animals” will solve our problems?
In the wake of the 1967 war, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan proposed saying to Palestinians:
“We don’t have a solution, and you will continue living like dogs, and whoever wants will go, and we’ll see how this procedure will work out.”
This is how it works out. It’s hell. For everyone. Stop it, stop apartheid, and start treating everyone like humans, let’s see how that works out.
Jonathan Ofir, maybe it’s time for you to come home. The country needs to be rebuilt.
Biden has given lip service to Palestinian “dignity and self-determination”. It is reasonable to see how difficult it would be for American politicians to not stand behind equality.
The damaging message from Hamas’ massacre was, “Palestinians want to force out the Jews”. A message that must be countered for there to be peace. Palestinians will be wise to set about developing a consensus on a political solution they can live with. A declaration of what they want and a determination to not provide their enemy, Greater Israel supremacists, with what they want from them. Thinkers are needed to facilitate this needed discussion and to move beyond the blame game…. something Greater Israel will avoid, and try to sabotage.
Nothing says freedom and equality like killing grandmothers and babies. Not. What it says is, “We want you dead or gone.” Means describe the ends they have in mind. Jonathan Ofir’s idealistic goals are negated by these means. At least admit this much.
It is difficult to predict how this episode will play out. A wider war with Hezbollah and Iran would be rather cataclysmic. How long does Israel plan for this operation? Who will Israel hand Gaza off to if they choose to leave?
In the long range this strengthens Bezalel Smotrich and those who think like him. It paints the Palestinians as thugs. I understand that those here on Mondoweiss, who are biased against Israel, will argue with that perception, but I just saw a still of a hostage on video and Hamas really looks like creepy serial killers and even if you can sell it to the world, that Israel is worse and brings this on itself, you can’t tell Israel that Hamas is not a disgusting group. (and because Abbas and the PA have been discredited, Palestinians = Hamas might be the winning slogan for the Israeli right in the years to come.)
(Netanyahu himself might survive this debacle depending how the next phase goes. I hate him, but who will replace him. it is high time for the likud and the right wing to find a new leader, but even if a decent person would resign or commit hari kari depending on the culture, netanyahu is not a decent person.)
little late for sitting around singing “kumbaya” isn’t it?