Colonial realities

Timid calls for a ceasefire between
Israel and Palestine mask the root
cause of the conflict: the problem
is the occupation, not the resistance

Nimer Sultany

Once again Israel defies an impotent international
community which offers nothing but timid calls for ceasefire
on "both sides". And once again Palestinian
suffering and death tolls continue to break records
in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967.

Perhaps it is easy to dismiss this suffering by
blaming the victims and resorting to ready cliches.
Indeed, Israeli propagandists go out of their way to
repeat the soundbite: we withdrew from Gaza in 2005
and since then the Palestinians have been firing rockets
on our southern towns. This soundbite might fly in the
western media; after all it resonates with a simplistic
world view that ignites stereotypes which have been in
the making for centuries, producing demonic and
degrading representations of Muslims and Arabs.
It becomes easy to describe the Palestinians in this
context as the carriers of incomprehensible and
irrational rage. This kind of representation has
intensified since September 2001 with the
"rediscovery" of Israel, and its supreme court,
as a western lighthouse amid the darkness of
the Middle East.

When examined closely, however, reality rules out
crude explanations of "violence without reason"
and "terrorism without context". It becomes
apparent that one cannot seriously discuss a legitimate
resistance to a prolonged and horrendous military
occupation within the context of the "war on terrorism".
Moreover, even if one finds a place to critique some
practices of the oppressed one should keep in mind the
root of the problem: it is the occupation, not the
resistance. No rhetorical device can conceal the reality
of colonialism by transforming it either to a mere "conflict"
between equally culpable sides or to portray the occupier
as the retaliating victim.

In his most recent report (pdf) of January 2008,
the UN rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the occupied territories has recounted Israel's actions
in Gaza, calling them "war crimes" and demonstrating
how these have been relentlessly producing a
humanitarian crisis. Indeed, more than 80% of Gaza's
Palestinians are living below the poverty line and depend
on the food aid supplied by the UNRWA. In recent years
Israel has destroyed power plants and other civilian
facilities, reduced the fuel and electricity supply, and
closed the borders. Palestinians' basic human needs,
such as movement, food and medical treatment,
became totally dependent on the whims of Israeli
security technocrats and political demagogues. It
was unsurprising then to witness on January 23 the
overflow of tens of thousands of Palestinians to Egypt
following the
destruction of a part of the Gaza-Egypt border.

By the so-called disengagement plan Israel has aimed to
escape its responsibility for Gaza's fate while effectively
remaining the occupier. It has also sought to impede
Palestinian self-determination by separating the West
Bank from Gaza and intensifying the colonisation of the
West Bank and East Jerusalem along with the vehement
denial of the right of the Palestinian refugees to return
to their homeland. One cannot expect the Palestinians
to sit quietly while Israel is creating facts on the ground
to transform and fragment the ever-shrinking
Palestinian homeland making their aspirations as
remote as they have ever been. One cannot expect
the Palestinians to submit to their reduction from humans
to mere beings concerned only with survival.

Israel should not be allowed to escape its responsibility.
The tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been
killed, wounded, imprisoned, or handicapped only in
recent years, and the thousands of houses that have
been demolished can testify to the cruelty of one of the
longest military occupations in recent modern history.

Unfortunately, parts of the international community
have tolerated Israel's atrocities and continue to turn
a blind eye on Israel's long list of war crimes and
crimes against humanity. It is hard to escape the irony
and hypocrisy when we compare the international strong
condemnation of the capture of Israeli soldiers by
resistance groups and the timid calls for Israel "to restrain"
herself in massacring the Palestinians or in destroying
Lebanon. These Israeli soldiers have names and families
that broadcasters around the world learn to spell, while the
Palestinians remain nameless and faceless numbers. This
hypocrisy conveys a dichotomy between the powerful who
by definition cannot commit terrorism no matter how
reprehensible the actions are, and the underprivileged
who by definition cannot commit but terrorism no matter
how marginal and pitiful the actions are.

It is about time that Israel be held accountable. There is a
need for an international protection for the Palestinians.
Under the current conditions of gross power asymmetry it
is unlikely that Israel will comply with the demands of
international law and just peace without a pressure from
the international community. The sooner this pressure
comes and the sooner the international community assumes
its responsibility, the less suffering we will witness in
the region.

The Palestinians, however, cannot wait till the
international community self-awakes into action. They
will have to continue to resist in order to assert and
restore their humanity. And for that purpose they will
have to overcome their own internal differences and unite.
Indeed, the long walk toward Palestinian freedom is
overwhelming and becoming even more demanding of
Palestinian blood. Yet, history informs us that the
Palestinians will eventually have their freedom like the
South Africans, Algerians, Egyptians, Indians and others.

Not only will the Palestinians overthrow the colonial yoke,
but they will also have grounds for questioning the
international community on its indifference to their cry
for freedom and justice, and its apathy to the too heavy
price that has been paid for these noble aspirations.
Indeed, the question of Palestine is the current litmus
test for the human condition under modernity.
Palestinians bear not only the burden of liberating
themselves but also of unmasking humanity's false
pretensions; ie exposing the realities of power that
always trump universalist and humanist postures.
In this sense, Palestinians are the voice of the
wretched of the earth.