“You see, they can do to us anything they want,
they kill our children, they destroy our homes, they
bulldoze our property, and they steal our money.
And when we cry out for justice, they call us terrorists
and dump us into detention camps like a piece of luggage.
By Khalid Amayreh in
occupied East Jerusalem
Is there a real difference between a criminal state and a
criminal individual? Is there a difference between
classical gangsters and armed robbers who hold-up
people and steal their money at gunpoint, and a state,
which claims to be the only democracy in the Middle
East and a light upon the nations of the world, that
commits very much the same crime?
On Monday, on 11 February, and in broad day light,
Israeli occupation soldiers raided dozens of homes,
money changers and businesses throughout the West
Bank after ordering “forces” answerable to Palestinian
“Authority” Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to stay
indoor until a further notice.
According to one of the victims in the city of Hebron,
the soldiers behaved “very much like gangsters, thugs
and common criminals.”
“They stormed my shop, trained their guns at me, and
ordered me to give them the money, or else,” said one
of the victims who implored this writer not to mention
his name lest he be further savaged by the
“most benevolent” occupying army.
His neighbor, a grocery store keeper, said the soldiers
simply emptied all the money, in Jordanian Dinars,
Israeli Shekels and US dollars, in plastic sacs, and left.
“They behaved like cowboys in the wide wild
west in classical American movies,” he said.
I asked him to describe his feelings, having watched
Israeli soldiers ganging up on his neighbor and robbing
him of all his money and life-savings at one fell swoop.
The man, visibly frustrated and furious, said
“If the occupation is an act of rape, and it actually
is, then the agents of the occupation, the soldiers,
are the rapists by excellence.
“You see, they can do to us anything they want,
they kill our children, they destroy our homes, they
bulldoze our property, and they steal our money.
And when we cry out for justice, they call us terrorists
and dump us into detention camps like a piece of luggage.
“In brief, I’m talking about a criminal state that
views us as creatures unworthy of living, very much
like the Nazis viewed their victims more than 60 years ago.”
Arresting Palestinians for seeking redress
Raiding homes and businesses and stealing money
is not the only gangsterly behavior of the Israeli state.
This week, the Israeli Minister of Interior instructed
the police to arrest several Palestinians in East Jerusalem
for daring to appeal to the Israeli High Court to order a
halt to the bulldozing of ancient Muslim archeological
sites adjacent to the Aqsa Mosque.
The appellants violated no law and were only exercising
their right to seek redress and justice.
However, the Israeli state apparently saw that
“justice and redress” were too much of a luxury for
non-Jews. This is the very same state whose “Justice”
system last week ruled that there was no sufficient
ground for indicting a number of crack policemen who
had murdered 13 Israeli Arab citizens in October, 2000,
during a demonstration against Israeli atrocities
in the West Bank.
At least some of these soldiers had admitted that
they killed their victims deliberately and unjustifiably
because they were Arabs.
Well, while every civilized and decent human being is
affronted by the behavior of such a wantonly
mendacious state, no one should really be surprised.
We are talking about Israel, a state that not only acquits
murderers of murdering Palestinian school kids, but actually
goes as far awarding the child-killers hefty financial
“compensation” for committing the dirty crimes. The
case of 12-year-old Iman al Hams and her killer Captain
R. will always be a clarion indictment of Israeli criminality
and racism, and no amount of hasbara whitewashing
will wash this shame away.
Modus operandi
In fact, when dealing with Israeli crimes and terrorism
against the virtually helpless Palestinians one is often at
loss as to where to begin and where to end, because Israel
is simply a criminal entity from head to toe. State-sponsored
crimes are Israel’s modus operandi. In recent days,
Israeli leaders, from Noble Laureate and proverbial
“peace dove,” Shimon Peres, to Ehud Olmert, to Ehud
Barak to Haim Ramon to the end of the list have been
threatening to annihilate Gaza and throw its 1.5 million
residents into the sea or into the Sinai desert.
The threats made by these certified war criminals must
always be taken seriously. After all, it is they who have
been imposing a Nazi-like blockade on Gaza pushing the
impoverished coastal territory to a humanitarian disaster
unprecedented since the Palestinian Nakba or catastrophe
in 1948, when the legions of Zionism massacred and
terrorized the bulk of native Palestinians into
fleeing their homeland.
A Zionist genocide, partial or complete, of Palestinians,
especially in Gaza, can’t be ruled out. There is simply
nothing that would prevent these modern Nazis from
emulating their former tormentors who also happened
to be their ultimate mentors.
Israeli apologists often claim that Israel could annihilate
all Palestinians in 24 hours and that the fact that it has
not done so despite Palestinian resistance to the Israeli
occupation underscores Israeli morality.
Well, this is not really true since the main obstacle
preventing Israel from annihilating the Palestinian
people is not really Zionist morality, but rather the
world public opinion and the perceived long-term
adversarial effects a monumental crime as such
would have on Zionism.
Non the less, there is not a shred of doubt that the
moment the world public opinion swerves right or left
or goes into a slumber, Israel would undoubtedly
embark on the unthinkable. Just listen to the gurus
of Zionism and you will understand what
I am talking about.
We are talking after all about a strange breed of psychopaths,
not unlike Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Genrich Yagoda and
Lazar Kaganovitch and other mass murderers who all
committed their crimes while pretending to serve
legitimate human purposes. They are capable of
doing the unthinkable.
It is for these reasons that free-minded people around
the world, especially honest and conscientious Jews,
must remain vigilant and watchful.
It is true there are many other trouble spots in the world.
However, the Palestinian plight remains the critical test of
world conscience. Hence, the people of Palestine and their
enduring just cause must never ever be let down.
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