Stubborn hope in the face of grim oppression

Palestine Update 619
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Stubborn hope in the face of grim oppression
The Zionists live in a make-believe world. Read Netanyahu’s insubordinate in response to the UN General Assembly’s vote last week to ask the International Court of Justice to provide an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories …“the Jewish people cannot be considered as occupiers of their own homeland”. Netanyahu wants to rewrite history by obfuscating the Palestinian identity altogether and to break the historical bond Palestinians have with the land of their ancestors.

As Dan Lieberman put it; Foreigners seize land, property and resources from native people, expel a mass of the population, and oppress, control the remaining inhabitants, inflict extreme oppression, while, all along, they could have lived anywhere else than in the land of the Palestinians. He adds:  “Only those who are inattentive to the situation, are genocide deniers, or have agendas that preclude recognition, cannot realize that the willful destruction of the Palestinian people requires magnitudes more attention than it is receiving”.

Soon after the swearing-in of Israel’s most extreme, ultranationalist and ultra-religious government, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians celebrated the 58th anniversary of the Palestinian nationalist liberation movement – Fatah. The Fatah anniversary was even celebrated by Palestinians in Hamas-controlled Gaza, in addition to the West Bank and Lebanon’s refugee camps. If anything, the celebrations underlined the fact that, after almost six decades, the grassroots movement remains popular and revered by Palestinians both in the Occupied Territories and in the diaspora.

 Yet, Palestinian resistance against colonization is much older and traces its roots to the early 1930s, when historical Palestine was under British mandate and as tens of thousands of European Jews began to arrive as colonizers. When Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary as a state in May, the celebrants will ignore the fact that their celebrations lack moral integrity. Their celebrations are on the back of the oppressed Palestinians.

British imperial collusion with the international Zionist movement, US and Western, have been characterized by land grabs, and attempts to erase Palestinian history and identity, ethnic cleansing, the destruction of entire villages, summary killings of civilians, blatant war crimes, forced transfers, massacres and the imprisonment of thousands. But all of these have failed to deliver what Israel’s founding fathers hoped would happen – that future generations of Palestinians would eventually forget.

 On October 12, 14 Palestinian political groups met in Algeria and signed a reconciliation agreement based on ending division through presidential and parliamentary elections. This was part of a year-long momentum where Arab governments revitalized their position in support of the Palestinians, both financially and politically through funding the Palestinian refugees’ agency, UNRWA, or supporting Palestine at the United Nations. Meanwhile, Israel digs itself into a deep trench – the trench of occupation. As a report in Eurasia poignantly puts it, “So, now it is making a last-ditch attempt, through an ultranationalist, ultra religious, openly racist government, to set itself free”. Netanyahu wildly believes that he will derail Iran’s nuclear capacity, and pursue with greater intensity his settlement policies in the West Bank and the Golan Heights will be his government’s top objective. There will be success in the short term. But the Palestinians will ‘keep hope alive’. Netanyahu and his comic partners will pursue their ambitious, he will neither restrain Iran, nor will he actually build settlements which will remain for perpetuity. Israel may manage to stay but only after they have surrendered to the tenets of justice on the basis of which peace is established.

In solidarity

Ranjan Solomon
On behalf of MLN Updates


Culture of Hope: 2022 and the Margins of Victory in Palestine
Dr Ramzy Baroud  

Another critical year for Palestine has folded. While 2022 has wrought much of the same in terms of Israeli military occupation and increasing violence, it also introduced new variables to the Palestinian struggle – nationally, regionally and internationally.

The Russia-Ukraine war starting in February pressured many political entities, including Palestinians, to take sides or, at least, to declare a position. Though the Palestinian Authority (PA) and various Palestinian political parties insisted on their neutrality, Russia’s deviation from the US-led political paradigm in the Middle East opened up new margins for Palestinians to explore.

On May 4, a delegation of Hamas leaders met Russian officials in Moscow, and, a few months later, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas defied Washington by holding a meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin in Astana, Kazakhstan. Despite US anger at Abbas, Washington could do little to retaliate against the Palestinian leadership, considering the delicate geopolitical balances in the Middle East and around the world.

The new political spaces created by global conflict also brought greater cohesion to the Arab position on Palestine, as articulated in a statement by the pan-Arab organization, the Arab League, in Cairo on November 29. Ahmed Aboul Gheit insisted on the Arab quest for a just peace and praised the ‘Algiers Declaration’ of the previous month. On October 12, 14 Palestinian political groups met in Algeria and signed a reconciliation agreement based on ending division through presidential and parliamentary elections.

This was part of a year-long momentum where Arab governments revitalized their position in support of the Palestinians, both financially and politically through funding the Palestinian refugees’ agency, UNRWA, or supporting Palestine at the United Nations.
Read full article of Ramzy Baroud

Overstep of Israel’s Supporters – Palestine’s Supporters Can Gain Control of the Narrative
Dan Lieberman

In community devastation, destruction of the Palestinian people ranks with the most severe. A group of foreign people invaded a land, seized property and resources from native people, expelled a mass of the population, and oppressed and controlled the remaining inhabitants. After decades of suffering under extreme oppression, with no end in sight, with oppressors who could live as well in other places, the destruction of the Palestinian people has unique qualities that defy rational thought. Only those who are inattentive to the situation, are genocide deniers, or have agendas that preclude recognition, cannot realize that the willful destruction of the Palestinian people requires magnitudes more attention than it is receiving.

white-power.jpgCompounding the defiance of rational thought, those responsible for the covert method of the genocide, which is the denial of ontological security to the Palestinian people, continually promote attention to a previous genocide and highlight, by exaggeration, attacks on their community. Inordinate attention to the World War II genocide has not halted other genocides and cannot resurrect those killed. Proper attention can halt the ongoing Palestinian genocide and save the lives of a population of millions.

Highlighting of mostly verbal attacks on the Jewish community has been counterproductive and failed to halt anti-Jewish sentiment. The latter feelings partially arise from those who oppose the role that a great part of world Jewry plays in the destruction of the Palestinians and from those who are chagrined by the continuous attempts of Israel’s supporters to play victim. Excessive attentions to the World War II genocide and exaggerations of anti-Jewish expressions enhance ontological genocide of the Palestinian people.
Read full article by Dan Lieberman

New Divisions in Israeli Society May Benefit Palestinians
Two days after the swearing-in of Israel’s most extreme, ultranationalist and ultra-religious government, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians celebrated the 58th anniversary of the birth of the oldest and most popular Palestinian nationalist liberation movement – Fatah. The Fatah anniversary was even celebrated by Palestinians in Hamas-controlled Gaza, in addition to the West Bank and Lebanon’s refugee camps. If anything, the celebrations underlined the fact that, after almost six decades, the grassroots movement remains popular and revered by Palestinians both in the Occupied Territories and in the diaspora.

But Palestinian resistance against colonization is much older and traces its roots to the early 1930s, when historical Palestine was under British mandate and as tens of thousands of European Jews began to arrive as colonizers.

Away from marking anniversaries and the symbolism attached to them, the century-old struggle for nationhood, liberation, independence and self-determination in Palestine is as fresh today as it was in the wake of the First World War.

The last century has been marked by British imperial collusion with the international Zionist movement, US and Western complicity, land grabs, attempts to erase Palestinian history and identity, ethnic cleansing, the destruction of entire villages, summary killings of civilians, blatant war crimes, forced transfers, massacres and the imprisonment of thousands. But all of these have failed to deliver what Israel’s founding fathers hoped would happen — that future generations of Palestinians would eventually forget.

Decades later, Israel and the Palestinians are bound together by one unbreakable bond: Occupation, where one is the occupier and the other is the occupied. No matter what Israel has tried to do to free itself from this shackle — ironically to liberate itself too — it has found itself sinking deeper into the quagmire that is occupation. So, now it is making a last-ditch attempt, through an ultranationalist, ultra religious, openly racist government, to set itself free. A triumphant Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that, in addition to derailing Iran’s nuclear program, settlement building in the West Bank and the Golan Heights will be his government’s top objective. While geopolitical constraints will not help him do much about the former, his motley coalition partners cannot wait to intensify the building of illegal settlements in a way that has never been seen before.

In the defiant words of Netanyahu — in response to the UN General Assembly’s vote last week to ask the International Court of Justice to provide an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories — the Jewish people cannot be considered as occupiers of their own homeland. In doing so, he is hoping to cancel the Palestinian identity altogether and break the historical bond Palestinians have with the land of their ancestors.
Read full version in Eurasia Review

2022 in review
In 2022, the Israeli occupation forces arrested around 7,000 Palestinians, with April 2022 recording the highest number of arrests reaching 1,228 cases, followed by May and October 2022, with 690 cases. Palestinians arrested from occupied Jerusalem remained the highest among other Palestinian cities, with more than 3,000 cases of arrests, including 600 cases of house arrests. Notably, around 106 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were arrested, including 64 Gazan fishermen. The Israeli occupation authorities systematically utilized administrative detention to indefinitely hold Palestinians without charge or fair trial based on “secret information,” issuing around 2,409 administrative detention orders during the year 2022 alone, including new orders and renewal orders as well.

There are currently 4,700 Palestinians held in Israeli occupation prisons, including 29 women, 150 children, five Legislative Council members, 15 journalists, and around 860 administrative detainees, including seven children, two women, and two PLC members. Moreover, there are 330 detainees who have spent more than 20 years in prison, 25 of them were arrested before the Oslo Accord.  As for solitary confinement, 70 Palestinian prisoners were punitively put in isolation throughout this year, of which 40 are still held in isolation.

Occupation authorities blatantly violate international obligations related to protecting and providing care for Palestinian prisoners experiencing illness. The number of sick Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons is currently around 600, with over 200 prisoners with chronic diseases and 24 prisoners diagnosed with cancer and other serious illnesses. Compounding their crimes of medical neglect, Israeli occupation forces continue to withhold the bodies of the now-eleven Palestinian prisoners who have been martyred.
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