By Stuart Littlewood*, in the 60th year of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Stuart Littlewood shows how Israels deep penetration of the British political establishment is preventing Britain from taking a principled stance against Israels outrageous violations of Palestinian human rights.
Terrorist is such a convenient word. The world's bully-boys have twisted its meaning so that it cannot apply to them. But stand with your Kalashnikov in the way of US and Israeli aggression, or oppose their meddling in the affairs of others, and you'll be automatically vilified and marginalized as a terrorist.
Who is the terrorist?
So let's see. What would you call a foreign power that occupies your country at the point of a gun, steals your land and water at the point of a gun, bulldozes your homes at the point of a gun, uproots your beautiful olive groves at the point of a gun, denies travel permits and sets up hundreds of armed checkpoints to disrupt normal life, batters down villagers' front doors in the dead of night and abducts your family at gunpoint, builds an illegal apartheid wall to annex your territory and isolate your community, blockades exports and imports to cause economic ruin, and seals borders so that medical supplies cannot get in and critically ill patients cannot get out for life-saving treatment?Correct: a terrorist state.
Between them the US and Israel are the greatest purveyors of terror on the planet but they fail to see themselves that way. It is the folk who resist, and who fight for their freedom with makeshift weapons and unconventional means, that are branded terrorists and suffer sanctions.
Take the resistance movement Hamas. The British government, faithful cur, has had it drummed into its collective brain, by our allies, that this is a terror organization. Therefore our chaps are forbidden to drop in for coffee and a chat with Hamas's chaps even though they are the democratically elected, legitimate choice of the Palestinian people.
How did Britain become such a wimp. such a supine wimp?
"Devastating" blockade
While visiting Gaza last month I saw for myself the cumulative effects of the collective punishment that Israel and friends are using to terrorize the innocent inhabitants of this tiny enclave. I have received almost daily reports from the Ministry of Health on the devastating shortage of drugs, medical disposables, fuel, equipment spares and numerous essential items, and how critically ill patients who can no longer receive proper treatment are prevented by the Israelis from transferring to hospitals outside Gaza, and now face an agonizing death. The latest bulletin pleaded.| Appeal - Appeal - Appeal We have a very serious shortage of diesel in the Ministry of Health [MOH]. The majority of the 11 hospitals of MOH do suffer from a shortage of fuel, the same is for the 52 primary health care clinics and vehicles... The consequences are catastrophic and include transport unable to bring employees to the hospitals. Please. we urge you to help us by applying any sort of pressure that could let the Israelis change their mind about this fatal action that would threaten the lives of thousands of civilians already under siege in Gaza. [signed] Dr Medhat Abbas, General Director of Crisis Management Unit, MOH |
Britain's Friends of Israel
Outraged, I emailed four leading Friends of Israel across the political spectrum and asked what pressure they were putting on Tel Aviv to end the humanitarian crisis, pointing out that Christians and Muslims alike were suffering cruelly under the siege.Three didn't bother to respond. The fourth admitted there was a crisis but quickly wandered off the point, saying:
| Israel left Gaza and removed forceably thousands of settlers. Their reward was the election of Hamas. and daily Qassam rockets fired at Israeli towns. All Israel asks of Hamas and the PA [Palestinian Authority] is recognition of Israel, stopping terrorist attacks. rockets rain on it every day. Israel does not drive Christians and Muslims from the Holy Land. Twenty per cent of Israeli citizens are non-Jew. |
Mr Friend-of-Israel needed reminding of some basic truths.
- Israel did not withdraw and still occupies Gaza's airspace, airwaves and coastal waters, and rigidly controls everything that goes in and out. Palestinians in Gaza cannot trade, travel or receive visitors except through Israel. They cannot even fish off their own shores. They are prisoners.
- Democracy is not designed to "reward" foreign powers.
- Hamas was democratically elected as the Palestinian government in January 2006.
- Israel is no Western-style democracy. It is an ethnocracy committed to maintaining a Jewish state:. The R[acist]-word applies.
- The word *terrorist* is carelessly used. Casualty figures show Israelis killing Palestinians at the rate of 4 to 1, and when it comes to children it's more like 10 to 1.
- Rockets hardly "rain down on Israel". Qassams are home-made, have a very limited range and do little damage � unlike Israeli's strike jets and other US supplied/funded highest-tech weaponry.
Hamas agreed to recognize the state of Israel in June 2006, subject of course to Israel's recognition of Palestinian national rights, an end to the occupation and no changes to the pre-1967 borders without Palestinian agreement (a principle enshrined in the Road Map that Israel pretended to accept).
If Israel isn't driving out Palestinians (Muslims and Christian alike), how can Mr Friend-of-Israel explain the continuing house demolitions, confiscations, farmland destruction, isolation of towns and villages, closures, annexations, checkpoints, the often life-threatening travel restrictions, the wall, the canonization and the Jews-only roads carving up the territory that's left, etc, etc, and the fact that the Christian population has slumped from 15 per cent to 1.5 per cent in the last 50 years?
And how viable did he think a Palestinian state would be, given the facts on the ground?
Mr Friend-of-Israel replied:
| I will not start to answer the points you make. There are answers to most of them but I hope you will accept that the Friends of Israel work for a genuine two state solution which is the only way forward ... of course Israel would be broadly within 1967 borders.. Just try to accept that we want peace and security for Israel AND a Palestinian state. |
So, regarding the immediate crisis in Gaza, where Christians along with Muslims will be starving and dying this Christmas thanks to Israel's blockade, was there anything Mr Friend-of-Israel could do?
"Can politicians in the UK do anything?" came the reply. "[Our] Foreign Affairs spokesman has written to the foreign minister saying that the international community must talk to moderate Hamas and provide aid. We encourage further relaxation for humanitarian needs.. We are pressing for relaxation of checkpoints at this festive season."
In the awful circumstances, I suggested, shouldn't Friends of Israel leaders condemn the collective punishment, which is in flagrant breach of Geneva Conventions and international law, and ask the Israeli government to lift the siege immediately? Couldn't Mr Friend-of-Israel and his colleagues at least do this?
"There are a lot of behind-the-scenes pressures on Israel to step up humanitarian relief, e.g. more food to Gaza," he replied. "It is best done that way. Grandstanding statements just put the Israeli backs up."
Oh dear, they're afraid of putting the Israelis' backs up. The fencing match ended with me wishing him a merry Christmas from the agony of Gaza.
There was little to show that this Mr Friend-of-Israel fully grasped the evil of the blockade, the acute suffering it caused and the desperation and fear felt by ordinary people; or that he was prepared to act to prevent the Warsaw Ghetto being recreated in Gaza.
"Death is threatening a very long list of patients," was the message coming out of Gaza yesterday as a 55-year old man, a woman and a 13-month child died because they were prevented by Israel from travelling for proper treatment, bringing the monthly total to 33. Imagine the outcry if this happened in a British city.
Misplaced loyalty
I have heard it said that, in British politics, joining Friends of Israel is a stepping-stone to ministerial rank. As someone who was brought up in the old-fashioned belief that allegiance to a foreign military power is a heads-on-spikes matter, I find this alarming. Why has the pro-Israel lobby been allowed to embed itself so deeply in our political life and thus at very heart of government? Its purpose is to promote Israel's interests in Parliament and sway British policy. Since when were our MPs paid or sworn to act the Israeli stooge and compromise our own national interests?The political director of Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), claims, that with over 2,000 members and registered supporters alongside 80 per cent of the Conservative MPs, CFI has become the largest affiliated group in the party.
Its website states that CFI
| strives to support the Conservative Party at all available opportunities. In the run up to the 2005 general election. CFI supported candidates up and down the country. As candidates are now being continuously selected for target seats, CFI has developed a special programme of weekly briefings, events with speakers and a chance to participate in delegations to Israel. CFI encourages all members to help campaign for parliamentary candidates and also for local council, London and European elections. |
It also has a Fast Track group for Conservative parliamentary candidates fighting target marginal seats at the next election. The political director himself is seeking election. If successful, where will his loyalty lie?
Senior Conservatives try to justify it all by insisting that Israel is "a force for good in the world" and "in the battle for the values that we stand for, for democracy against theocracy, for democratic liberal values against repression Israel's enemies are our enemies and this is a battle in which we all stand together".
What breathtaking tosh. I find it hard to identify any values worth sharing with that rogue state. Nonetheless, our would-be next prime minister, David Cameron, has declared himself a Zionist. Does he know has he bothered to find out what that actually means?
Underlining the danger of misplaced friendship Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, is reported to have twice asked David Miliband, our foreign secretary, to scrap the law that authorizes magistrates to issue arrest warrants for suspected war criminals who set foot in the UK. Avi Dichter, a former director of the Shin Bet spy service who was involved in the Shehada assassination in 2002, in which 14 Palestianian civilians were killed by an Israeli air strike, has had to cancel a trip to London for fear of being arrested.
Doron Almog, a former Israeli general also involved in the Shehada affair, narrowly avoided arrest when he landed at Heathrow in 2005. Now Israel wishes the UK to change its laws to protect their thugs.
Anything you say, Miss Livni. So much more important than talking to Hamas or landing emergency supplies on the beach at Gaza.
*Stuart Littlewood is a businessman-turned-writer. His book, Radio Free Palestine, launched earlier this year, tells of the plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. For details visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment