[WCUSP] Palestine 2007: Genocide in Gaza, Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank

[yvonne simmons]

Sorry wiswomen I sent this to the wrong e-mail Yvonne
--- yvonne simmons <roweenayvonne at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:39:55 -0800 (PST)
> From: yvonne simmons <roweenayvonne at yahoo.com>
> To: wisewomen at wilpf.org
> Subject: [Wisewomen] Fwd: Palestine 2007: Genocide
> in Gaza,
> 	Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank
> 
> 
> > 
> > UPDATE FROM THE
> > ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
> > 
> > http://electronicIntifada.net
> > _______________________________
> > 
> > (List Information, including one-click
> > unsubscription, is located at the end of this
> > message. Remove unsubscribe link when forwarding
> to
> > avoid accidental unsubscription by your
> recipient.)
> > 
> > __ 
> > 12 January 2007
> > 
> > 
> > PALESTINE: OPINION/EDITORIAL: 
> > Palestine 2007: Genocide in Gaza, Ethnic Cleansing
> > in the 
> > West Bank 
> > By Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 11 January
> > 2007
> > 
> > http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6374.shtml
> > 
> > 
> > On this stage, not so long ago, I claimed that
> > Israel is
> > conducting genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip. I
> > hesitated a lot before using this very charged
> term
> > and
> > yet decided to adopt it. Indeed, the responses I
> > received,
> > including from some leading human rights
> activists,
> > indicated a certain unease over the usage of such
> a
> > term.
> > I was inclined to rethink the term for a while,
> but
> > came
> > back to employing it today with even stronger
> > conviction:
> > it is the only appropriate way to describe what
> the
> > Israeli army is doing in the Gaza Strip.
> > 
> > On 28 December 2006, the Israeli human rights
> > organization
> > B'Tselem published its annual report about the
> > Israeli
> > atrocities in the occupied territories. Israeli
> > forces
> > killed this last year six hundred and sixty
> > citizens. The
> > number of Palestinians killed by Israel last year
> > tripled
> > in comparison to the previous year (around two
> > hundred).
> > According to B'Tselem, the Israelis killed one
> > hundred and
> > forty one children in the last year. Most of the
> > dead are
> > from the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli forces
> > demolished
> > almost 300 houses and slew entire families. This
> > means
> > that since 2000, Israeli forces killed almost four
> > thousand Palestinians, half of them children; more
> > than
> > twenty thousand were wounded.
> > 
> > B'Tselem is a conservative organization, and the
> > numbers
> > may be higher. But the point is not just about the
> > escalating intentional killing, it is about the
> > trend and
> > the strategy. As 2007 commences, Israeli
> > policymakers are
> > facing two very different realities in the West
> Bank
> > and
> > the Gaza Strip. In the former, they are closer
> than
> > ever
> > to finishing the construction of their eastern
> > border.
> > Their internal ideological debate is over and
> their
> > master
> > plan for annexing half of the West Bank is being
> > implemented at an ever-growing speed. The last
> phase
> > was
> > delayed due to the promises made by Israel, under
> > the Road
> > Map, not to build new settlements. Israel found
> two
> > ways
> > of circumventing this alleged prohibition. First,
> it
> > defined a third of the West Bank as Greater
> > Jerusalem,
> > which allowed it to build within this new annexed
> > area
> > towns and community centers. Secondly, it expanded
> > old
> > settlements to such proportions so that there was
> no
> > need
> > to build new ones. This trend was given an
> > additional push
> > in 2006 (hundreds of caravans were installed to
> mark
> > the
> > border of the expansions, the planning schemes for
> > the new
> > towns and neighborhoods were finalized and the
> > apartheid
> > bypass roads and highway system completed). In
> all,
> > the
> > settlements, the army bases, the roads and the
> wall
> > will
> > allow Israel to annex almost half of the West Bank
> > by
> > 2010. Within these territories there will be a
> > considerable number of Palestinians, against whom
> > the
> > Israeli authorities will continue to implement
> slow
> > and
> > creeping transfer policies -- too boring as a
> > subject for
> > the western media to bother with and too elusive
> for
> > human
> > rights organizations to make a general point about
> > them.
> > There is no rush; as far as the Israelis are
> > concerned,
> > they have the upper hand there: the daily abusive
> > and
> > dehumanizing mixed mechanisms of army and
> > bureaucracy is
> > as effective as ever in contributing its own share
> > to the
> > dispossession process.
> > 
> > The strategic thinking of Ariel Sharon that this
> > policy is
> > far better than the one offered by the blunt
> > 'transferists' or ethnic cleansers, such as
> Avigdor
> > Liberman's advocacy, is accepted by everyone in
> the
> > government, from Labor to Kadima. The petit crimes
> > of
> > state terrorism are also effective as they enable
> > liberal
> > Zionists around the world to softly condemn Israel
> > and yet
> > categorize any genuine criticism on Israel's
> > criminal
> > policies as anti-Semitism.
> > 
> > On the other hand, there is no clear Israeli
> > strategy as
> > yet for the Gaza Strip; but there is a daily
> > experiment
> > with one. Gaza, in the eyes of the Israelis, is a
> > very
> > different geo-political entity from that of the
> West
> > Bank.
> > Hamas controls Gaza, while Abu Mazen seems to run
> > the
> > fragmented West Bank with Israeli and American
> > blessing.
> > There is no chunk of land in Gaza that Israel
> covets
> > and
> > there is no hinterland, like Jordan, to which the
> > Palestinians of Gaza can be expelled. Ethnic
> > cleansing is
> > ineffective here.
> > 
> > The earlier strategy in Gaza was ghettoizing the
> > Palestinians there, but this is not working. The
> > ghettoized community continues to express its will
> > for
> > life by firing primitive missiles into Israel.
> > Ghettoizing
> > or quarantining unwanted communities, even if they
> > were
> > regarded as sub-human or dangerous, never worked
> in
> > history as a solution. The Jews know it best from
> > their
> > own history. The next stages against such
> > communities in
> > the past were even more horrific and barbaric. It
> is
> > difficult to tell what the future holds for the
> Gaza
> > population, ghettoized, quarantined, unwanted and
> > demonized. Will it be a repeat of the ominous
> > historical
> > examples or is a better fate still possible?
> > 
> > Creating the prison and throwing the key to the
> sea,
> > as UN
> > Special Reporter John Dugard has put it, was an
> > option the
> > Palestinians in Gaza reacted against with force as
> > soon as
> > September 2005. They were determined to show at
> the
> > very
> > least that they were still part of the West Bank
> and
> > Palestine. In that month, they launched the first
> > significant, in number and not quality, barrage of
> > missiles into the Western Negev. The shelling was
> a
> > response to an Israeli campaign of mass arrests of
> > Hamas
> > and Islamic Jihad activists in the Tul Karem area.
> > The
> > Israelis responded with operation 'First Rain'. It
> > is
> > worth dwelling for a moment on the nature of that
> > operation. It was inspired by the punitive
> measures
> > inflicted first by colonialist powers, and then by
> > dictatorships, against rebellious imprisoned or
> > banished
> > communities. A frightening show of the oppressor's
> > power
> > to intimidate preceded all kind of collective and
> > brutal
> > punishments, ending with a large number of dead
> and
> > wounded among the victims. In 'First Rain',
> > supersonic
> > flights were flown over Gaza to terrorize the
> entire
> > population, succeeded by the heavy bombardment of
> > vast
> > areas from the sea, sky and land. The logic, the
> > Israeli
> > army explained, was to create pressure so as to
> > weaken the
> > Gaza community's support for the rocket launchers.
> > As was
> > expected, by the Israelis as well, the operation
> > only
> > increased the support for the rocket launchers and
> > gave
> > impetus to their next attempt. The real purpose of
> > that
> > particular operation was experimental. The Israeli
> > generals wished to know how such operations would
> be
> > received at home, in the region and in the world.
> > And it
> > seems that instantly the answer was 'very well';
> > namely,
> > no one took an interest in the scores of dead and
> > hundreds
> > of wounded Palestinians left behind after the
> 'First
> > Rain'
> > subsided.
> > 
> > And hence since 'First Rain' and until June 2006,
> > all the
> > following operations were similarly modeled. The
> > difference was in their escalation: more
> firepower,
> > more
> > causalities and more collateral damage and, as to
> be
> > expected, more Qassam missiles in response.
> > Accompanying
> > measures in 2006 were more sinister means of
> > ensuring the
> > full imprisonment of the people of Gaza through
> > boycott
> > and blockade, with which the EU is still
> shamefully
> > collaborating.
> > 
> > The capture of Gilad Shalit in June 2006 was
> > irrelevant in
> > the general scheme of things, but nonetheless
> > provided an
> > opportunity for the Israelis to escalate even more
> > the
> > components of the tactical and allegedly punitive
> > missions. After all, there was still no strategy
> > that
> > followed the tactical decision of Ariel Sharon to
> > take out
> > 8,000 settlers whose presence complicated
> 'punitive'
> > missions and whose eviction made him almost a
> > candidate
> > for the Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, the
> > 'punitive'
> > actions continue and become themselves a strategy.
> > 
> > The Israeli army loves drama and therefore also
> > escalated
> > the language. 'First Rain' was replaced by 'Summer
> > Rains',
> > a general name that was given to the 'punitive'
> > operations
> > since June 2006 (in a country where there is no
> rain
> > in
> > the summer, the only precipitation that one can
> > expect are
> > showers of F-16 bombs and artillery shells hitting
> > people
> > of Gaza).
> > 
> > 'Summer Rains' brought a novel component: the land
> > invasion into parts of the Gaza Strip. This
> enabled
> > the
> > army to kill citizens even more effectively and to
> > present
> > it as a result of heavy fighting within dense
> > populated
> > areas, an inevitable result of the circumstances
> and
> > not
> > of Israeli policies. With the close of summer came
> > operation 'Autumn Clouds' which was even more
> > efficient:
> > on 1 November 2006, in less than 48 hours, the
> > Israelis
> > killed seventy civilians; by the end of that
> month,
> > with
> > additional mini operations accompanying it, almost
> > two
> > hundred were killed, half of them children and
> > women. As
> > one can see from the dates, some of the activity
> was
> > parallel to the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, making
> > it
> > easier to complete the operations without much
> > external
> > attention, let alone criticism.
> > 
> > From 'First Rain' to 'Autumn Clouds' one can see
> > escalation in every parameter. The first is the
> > disappearance of the distinction between civilian
> > and
> > non-civilian targets: the senseless killing has
> > turned the
> > population at large to the main target for the
> > army's
> > operation. The second one is the escalation in the
> > means:
> > employment of every possible killing machines the
> > Israeli
> > army possesses. Thirdly, the escalation is
> > conspicuous in
> > the number of casualties: with each operation, and
> > each
> > future operation, a much larger number of people
> are
> > likely to be killed and wounded. Finally, and most
> > importantly, the operations become a strategy --
> the
> > way
> > Israel intends to solve the problem of the Gaza
> > Strip.
> > 
> > A creeping transfer in the West Bank and a
> measured
> > genocidal policy in the Gaza Strip are the two
> > strategies
> > Israel employs today. From an electoral point of
> > view, the
> > one in Gaza is problematic as it does not reap any
> > tangible results; the West Bank under Abu Mazen is
> > yielding to Israeli pressure and there is no
> > significant
> > force that arrests the Israeli strategy of
> > annexation and
> > dispossession. But Gaza continues to fire back. On
> > the one
> > hand, this would enable the Israeli army to
> initiate
> > more
> > massive genocidal operations in the future. But
> > there is
> > also the great danger, on the other, that as
> > happened in
> > 1948, the army would demand a more drastic and
> > systematic
> > 'punitive' and collateral action against the
> > besieged
> > people of the Gaza Strip.
> > 
> > Ironically, the Israeli killing machine has rested
> > lately.
> > Even relatively large number of Qassam missiles,
> > including
> > one or two quite deadly ones, did not stir the
> army
> > to
> > action. Though the army's spokesmen say it shows
> > 'restraint', it never did in the past and is not
> > likely to
> > do so in the future. The army rests, as its
> generals
> > are
> > content with the internal killing that rages on in
> > Gaza
> > and does the job for them. They watch with
> > satisfaction
> > the emerging civil war in Gaza, which Israel
> foments
> > and
> > encourages. From Israel's point of view it does
> not
> > really
> > mater how Gaza would eventually be demographically
> > downsized, be it by internal or Israeli slaying.
> The
> > responsibility of ending the internal fighting
> lies
> > of
> > course with the Palestinian groups themselves, but
> > the
> > American and Israeli interference, the continued
> > imprisonment, the starvation and strangulation of
> > Gaza are
> > all factors that make such an internal peace
> process
> > very
> > difficult. But it will take place soon and then
> with
> > the
> > first early sign that it subsided, the Israeli
> > 'Summer
> > Rains' will fall down again on the people of Gaza,
> > wreaking havoc and death.
> > 
> > And one should never tire of stating the
> inevitable
> > political conclusions from this dismal reality of
> > the year
> > we left behind and in the face of the one that
> > awaits us.
> > There is still no other way of stopping Israel
> than
> > besides boycott, divestment and sanctions. We
> should
> > all
> > support it clearly, openly, unconditionally,
> > regardless of
> > what the gurus of our world tell us about the
> > efficiency
> > or raison d'etre of such actions. The UN would not
> > intervene in Gaza as it does in Africa; the Nobel
> > peace
> > laureates would not enlist to its defense as they
> do
> > for
> > causes in Southeast Asia. The numbers of people
> > killed
> > there are not staggering as far as other
> calamities
> > are
> > concerned, and it is not a new story -- it is
> > dangerously
> > old and troubling. The only soft point of this
> > killing
> > machine is its oxygen lines to 'western'
> > civilization and
> > public opinion. It is still possible to puncture
> > them and
> > make it at least more difficult for the Israelis
> to
> > implement their future strategy of eliminating the
> > Palestinian people either by cleansing them in the
> > West
> > Bank or genociding them in the Gaza Strip.
> > 
> > 
> > Ilan Pappe is senior lecturer in the University of
> > Haifa
> > Department of Political Science and Chair of the
> > Emil
> > Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies in Haifa.
> > His
> > books include, among others, The Making of the
> > Arab-Israeli Conflict (London and New York 1992),
> > The
> > Israel/Palestine Question (London and New York
> > 1999), A
> > History of Modern Palestine (Cambridge 2003), The
> > Modern
> > Middle East (London and New York 2005) and his
> > latest,
> > Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006).
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
>  
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
> Now that's room service!  Choose from over 150,000
> hotels
> in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your
> fit.
> http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Wisewomen mailing list
> Post to this list by sending an email to this
> address: Wisewomen at wilpf.org
> To unsubscribe or change your options as a user,
> click here:
>
http://wilpf.org/mailman/listinfo/wisewomen_wilpf.org
> 



 
____________________________________________________________________________________
We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love 
(and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list.
http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265