The war on Gaza, by Bukar Mustapha Sabo
When Hamas the Palestinian resistance group attacked southern Israel that resulted
in the death of over 1405 Israelis/foreigners and massive destruction on its security infrastructure, I expected Zionists true to type will respond with “mighty vengeance” as Prime Minister Netanyahu puts it, or deal ruthlessly with the “human animals” as Yaov Gallant the Defence Minister told the world. They lived up to their threats. So far 9500 Palestinians dead, (3500 are children) and 22,000 injured. The world stood still on the 7th October, 2023. The holocaust narratives was immediately drummed up to hypnotize the West. Hamas are Nazis, Hamas is ISIS. But Hamas has pricked the consciousness of the world that deliberately neglected the Palestinian question for 75 years. The US and the West promptly joined Israel in THE WAR ON GAZA.
President Joe Biden addressed his nation twice on the war against Gaza. That Israel has the right to defend itself. That America stands by Israel and intimidated regional actors to steer clear of Israel. He pledged to send all the military assets Israel will require along with financial aid, in addition to the annual $3 billion aid. America gave unrestrained access of its military assets in Israel to Israel. The Iron dome, fighter jets and bombs dropped on Gaza by Israel are all Americas. The US deployed two aircraft carriers to the Meditereaan in defence of Israel. American drones are flying over Gaza guiding Israeli jet fighters to drop bombs on homes. It is crystal clear that Pentagon and the State Department officials are coordinating the war along with Israelis. America’s imperialist interest to control greater Middle East aligns with Israel’s greater Palestine as the land of the Jews. That informs the US involvement in all the five wars against Gaza and a deceptive peace process.
Many key appointments in Biden’s government are Jewish. His first two key appointments, his Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are Jews. On his first broadcast to the nation standing behind him were Vice President Kamala Harris whose husband is a Jew and his Secretary of State, a Jew. No doubt Biden was under intense pressure to state that the attack on Israel was unprovoked. A narrative adopted and amplified in Western capitals and their media outlets. But, this is a deliberate de-contextualization of the Palestinian struggle, it is what it is, a 75-year persistent struggle against malicious Jewish settler colonialism, that dispossesses them of their land and inflicts genocide against them.
READ ALSO: Gaza faces dire humanitarian crisis amid ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict – UN
Then enter the flurry of diplomatic activity in the region. While in Tel Aviv, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, reiterated America’s unwavering support for Israel. He hurriedly declared his Jewish identity to the high priest, Netanyahu. President Biden had, on arrival in Tel Aviv, also rushed to proclaimed his Zionist identity. Mr. Blinken’s diplomatic shuttle, or is it diplomatic intimidation in Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia has worked effectively in lulling Arab dictators to sleep despite the horrific destruction and death in Gaza.
Then enter Europe. The UK also mobilized and deployed patrol and surveillance aircrafts along with two Royal ships to the region to support Israel’s war on Gaza, with strong warning at regional state and non-state actors not to be involved. European leaders rushed to Tel Aviv, the Control Room of Palestinian pogrom, to express unequivocal solidarity with Israel. The impressive list of former colonial masters that visited Israel include; Macron who made pro-Palestinian protest illegal in France, Rishi Sunak of Britain who made carrying Palestinian flag illegal, Germany, perpetually in historical guilty over Hitler’s holocaust and the Netherlands, who barely treated men, women and children as humans for more than 250 years in the regions that are now known as Indonesia, South Africa, Curaçao, New Guinea – and beyond. Other wailers include the Czech Republic, Austria, Greece, etc. These are leaders thoroughly schooled in the vice of colonialism, apartheid and racism. They pretend that the Palestinian struggle for homeland started on 7 Oct 2023 Israel. They de-contextualized the Palestinian struggle, using misrepresentation like Israel is responding to “unprovoked attack”. This is while, with the blessings of Netanyahu, Israeli occupation soldiers had killed over 130 Palestinians and arrested over 1300 in the West Bank, far away from Gaza. Clearly, the Zionist aggression is not just about Gaza or Hamas, it is about killing the Palestinian aspiration.
Since 7th October, the narrative peddled by US and EU leaders is Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. Is this preparing the international community for “the day after.” Hopefully Mahmood Abbas will not be harassed to take over this graveyard called Gaza. Unless the Israel and the west are suffering from deliberate amnesia, Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2006. Hamas germinated out of the violence, occupation, land seizure, check points, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, home demolition, and inhuman treatment by Israel. Hamas is a social and political movement deeply rooted in the fabric of Palestinian society. Hamas “violence” is a liberation struggle, while Israeli violence is to sustain a settler colony and Zionist domination. The right to resist colonialism is recognized by the United Nation. Also, the narrative of total destruction of Hamas peddled by Israel is only a hallucination peddled to excite the Jews. We are already seeing on our television sets the faces of the NEW HAMAS being born; the children being dug from the rubbles, and orphaned by Zionist aggression.
The US and Western countries have no moral standing/courage to criticize or to stop Israel for killing Palestinians. Israel, their comrade in arms and iniquity, is tutored by their habitual killings of Arabs/Muslims. It is reported that the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 has caused the death of over 315,190 Iraqis. Over a million Iraqis died from the US war on Iraq. An estimated 70,000 Afghans died as a result of America’s occupation. If we think Israel is not behaving true to type, France that made it a nuclear power killed between 400,000 and 1,500,000 Algerians during the Algerian war of independence. Italy colonialism killed about 83,000 Libyans. The Libyan Red Crescent estimated that about 11,300 died in post Gaddaffi civil war engineered by the UK, US and France. It is estimated that, about 10 million Congolese died between 1885 and 1960 directly attributed to Belgium colonialism. Israel belongs to this murderous club. Colonial/imperialist violence is a necessary tool to subjugate and control indigenous people across the world.
Israel is the most violent settler colony in modern times. The US, UK and Europe expressed no remorse as Israel kills over 9,500 Palestinians on live television in the 21st century. A blatant endorsement of 75 years of brutal occupation, expulsion, land grab and genocide. Israel occupied the Gaza for 30 years before it left under intense Hamas fire power. It continued to blockade the strip for sixteen years by air, land and sea making it the largest open-air prison with over 2.3 million people. Life is harsh as Gaza became perpetually in humanitarian crisis, poverty, periodic bombing of its infrastructure, and homes. Israel created a center-periphery structure making Gaza dependent even for water, fuel, electricity and medicaments. Gaza need to breath from Israel’s choke hold. But is the West Bank any better than Gaza?
The Oslo Peace Accord tricked Yasser Arafat into believing that Palestinian State was feasible. Thirty years later it is in the cooler along with the Palestinian Authority leadership. It gave ample time for Israeli leaders and judiciary to steal more land from Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Over 750,000 Israelis were settled in the West Bank. According to the UN, in 2023, settler violence has killed 179 Palestinians and 798 settler violence against Palestinians were recorded. The International Red Cross reported that as at August 2020, Israeli settlers have destroyed over 9,300 olive trees in the West Bank. The Israel Committee Against Home Demolition estimated that over 55,048 homes and structures were destroyed by the Israeli government. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, in the span of 30 months over 296 schools and allied facilities were attacked by Israeli army and settlers. Israel has since 7th October killed 130 Palestinians, injured over 2000 and kidnapped over 1500 in the West Bank. Armed settler violence has increased with the support of Israeli army. Clearly, the war is against Palestinians, not Hamas.
Since 7th October 2023, the UN has shown its extreme limitations regarding Israel. The country it helped in founding has breeched all its laws with impunity. The Security Council was unable to condemn the killings in Gaza and call for ceasefire because of consistent US veto. Israel and the US refused to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Though the UN Secretary General has condemned Hamas, Zionist Israel has called for his resignation and the defunding of the organization, because he said what happened on 7th October has a historical context. Antonio Guterres did not heed the advice of the former UN Secretary General, late Bitrus Ghali (an Egyptian Jew) to his successors that, if they want a successful tenure they should not antagonize Israel.
Another narrative peddled in this war in the media and Western capitals is Hamas has kidnapped over 229 Israelis and foreigners. In the war for national liberation are settlers not a legitimate target? Are they not part of the colonial infrastructure as they are fully armed to protect the settler colony? What makes it different from the ANC struggle in South Africa or the Mau Mau in Kenya? Are settlers not killing Palestinians and taking over their lands and farm assets? I see Israelis taken by Hamas as war prisoners, just as Israel conducting night raids and arresting Palestinians who are now prisoners in Israeli Jails. Groups supporting Palestinian political prisoners said there are currently over 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails. That 4 in 10 Palestinians have spent time in Israeli Jail, and as at June 2023 the Israel Prison Service has detained 147 children.
The narrative that Hamas is Nazi or ISIS did not fly, even the Western media turned down the propaganda. Hamas is Nazi narrative is to whip up holocaust sentiments and gain support of a captive Europe mesmerized by Hollywood movies on the atrocities of the holocaust. Hamas is Israel’s albatross. Israel nurtured it to counter the influence of Arafat’s PLO. Hamas cannot be ISIS because Israel supports it in the destruction of Syria. Why is ISIS ruthlessly killing Muslims supposedly of the same religion but not Israelis? ISIS killed Yazidis because they considered them infidels but not Israelis. Why is Israel treating wounded ISIS fighters from Syria in Israel ?
In this phase of War against Gaza and Palestinians generally, the world has rallied around in condemnation of occupation, destruction and genocide by the most violent settler colony, Israel. Arab leaders are collectively intimidated to distance themselves from the Palestinian cause. Arab dictators are always reminded of what befell Saddam and Ghaddafi. They are recently forced by the US to sign the Abraham Accord to normalize relations with Israel. Not even a whimper of protest from them when the US moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Still, Palestine is not without support beyond its Arab brethren. A non-Arab state, Iran, has consistently supported the Palestinian cause, along with the brave anti-imperialist group called the “Axis of Resistance”. Also, hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian rallies are held in cities across the Middle East, America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and many other cities. There was an impressive turn out by Jewish Communities across the world to denounce the war on Gaza proclaiming “not in our name.”
Israel and President Biden insisted there wouldn’t be a ceasefire. It is a war of attrition, as Gaza is mercilessly attacked by land, sea and air. They have since killed over 9,500 Palestinians, mostly children, deliberately targeted and killed journalists, UN workers, bombed hospitals, ambulances, schools, refugee camps, fishing boats and completely destroy over 28,000 homes and partially destroy 180,000 homes in Gaza. It was reported that Israel dropped over 6,000 US-made bombs on the “sons of darkness” (as Netanyahu puts it in his letter to the occupation force) in Gaza in six days more than the bombs US dropped on Afghanistan in twelve months. President Putin of Russia was right to say what is happening in the Middle East is a failure of American foreign policy.
Israel arrogantly believes it can subjugate and control the occupied territories by military force. Decades ago, Franz Fanon had proclaimed that, colonial situation is a violent situation, a situation created and sustained by violence and can only be eradicated through violence. That aptly describes Israel’s violence on Palestinians. Its violence begot violence. Palestinians are very courageous people, neither Israel nor America can stop their march for a homeland.
M. B. Sabo
Old GRA, Gombole Extension, Maiduguri
bukarmustaphasabo@yahoo.com
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