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When the Israeli government bombs and bulldozes Palestinian police stations, security force installations and as it is carrying this out asks Arafat to control the terrorists, how could this be possible even if Arafat were an instinctively “good” and “honest” person? For example, where would he capture and detain the terrorists? Some Palestinians feel the destruction of their security forces by the Israeli army and demanding of counter-terrorism from the Israeli government is a conspiracy to deface the Palestinians in the eyes of the world media.
Many feel the core responsibility for the problems of the Palestinians lies with the failure of Israel to stick to the Oslo and Wye agreements over the free movement of Palestinians within their territories. This affects the lives of all Palestinians and limits their basic human rights. Another key issue is that Jerusalem (also a holy Muslim site) is off-limits to all Palestinians who are not residents of Jerusalem.
The Israeli Government is and has for a long time been one of the most brutal regimes in the world. According to Michael Ben-Yair, Israel’s attorney general in the mid-1990s “we enthusiastically chose to become a colonialist society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities… we established an apartheid regime”.
More than anything, the Palestinians are afraid when they hear the opinions of the Zionists of Israel (enjoying a strong representation in the Israeli government) – who seek expansion of Israel on the deeply inhumane basis of religion. Just like Islamic fundamentalists, each of these misinterpretations of religion view non-members as disposable and are equally bigoted and claim salvation only for themselves, excluding all others as each is the one and only true religion. True Zionists thus see others as dispensable, and are quite willing to expend them for the good of Israel, quite willing to expand their nation at the expense of others as it is “God’s will”. There is therefore little difference in the psyche of Zionist Jews and Nazis who both advocate to different extremes ethnic cleansing and improvement of the people – hence the Zionists have become the embodiment of all the kinds of things they are trying to protect themselves against. Most ordinary Jews balk at these fundamentalists, but there is little they can do to sway their opinions.
This neo-Nazism demonstrated by Zionist Israelis frightens ordinary Palestinians immensely. There are many reports of the Zionist-influenced army entering Palestinian villages, rounding up every man, woman and child and massacring them. Other Palestinians who survive run away and since they have abandoned their homes are classified as “absentee” landlords and therefore the Zionists could own the property, moving into the abandoned homes and farms or bulldozing them. Alternatively, they might kill the Palestinian and take his home. Palestinians have become baffled by the hypocrisy where if a Palestinian kills an Israeli it is described as “terrorism”, but when a Zionist does this, it is described as “retaliation”. Also, Israel deports Palestinian civilians from battle zones in order to “protect them”. Why then does it let its own civilians move in and live in these territories, if they are such a battlefield? Is the Israeli government simply interested in accomplishing the Zionist dream?
Most people presented with these facts would say that the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves. We have all heard the many horrific stories of alarmingly young children throwing stones at the Israeli army and getting gunned down. At this point we reach a huge problem which has split the entire world. It seems clear to any impartial observer that the suicide bombers have links with the PA. Some Palestinians actually see the suicide bombers as their only method of defence – a weakening of the opposition. In fact, they are increasingly being referred to by people in various countries as Freedom Fighters. I personally find this disgusting, as innocent civilian lives should never have to pay for the crimes of the government. However I am not a Palestinian, and so I have little idea about the sense of injustice these people face. What causes a suicide bomber to sacrifice his life? Is not desperation the greatest cause – and yet Sharon seems to be hell-bent on making the Palestinian people even more desperate?
Many Palestinians are nevertheless against the idea of suicide bombers. However all Palestinians have to face the after-effects caused by a suicide bombing. These include helicopters strafing civilian residential areas, the truly random shelling by tanks which creates hundreds of innocent wounded people at any one time and bulldozers razing refugee homes, whilst supplies of food and medicine are often cut off to Palestinians, and educational and health institutions are bombed and destroyed.
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N Gadd
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Feedback I have received N Gadd | Jun 5th, 2002
After receiving much feedback from many people about this article, I must say that there are a few striking omissions that I have made and these will be addressed before the second version, because I agree with them completely.
Firstly, it is increasingly evident that the first steps for peace have to be taken by the Palestinian Authority and that only when the terror networks are destroyed can anything positive happen.
Also, a very important issue is that in many Palestinian schools there is substantial hate-mongering, and blaming of all of the Palestinians' problems on the Israelis. Clearly the brainwashing of the Palestinian youths is another huge problem.
Looking at both sides, I have also forgotten to mention the dehumanization which allows either side to not feel guilty when they are committing all sorts of crimes. This is much more pronounced in the case of the Palestinian suicide bombers who think they are serving a just cause by murdering innocent civilians, or carrying out actions which are for the greater good, but we must also mention the prominent Israeli politicians such as Ehud Barak who make statements like "all Arabs are liars", a racist dehumanization which is the pretext of so much discrimination.
Other mistakes N Gadd | Jun 5th, 2002
I have been reliably informed by one of my friends who is a Zionist that Zionism is not expansionism (which is what I have equated it with in my essay) but rather the legitimate desire for a safe Israeli homeland. Hence I must apologize for this error.
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