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Palestine's Guernica and the
Myths of Israeli Victimhood


Mustafa Barghouthi

Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative


The Israeli campaign of 'death from above' began around 11 am, on Saturday morning, the 27th of December, and
stretched straight through the night into this morning. The massacre continues
Sunday as I write these words.



The bloodiest single day in Palestine since the War of 1967 is far from over
following on Israel's promised that this is 'only the beginning' of their
campaign of state terror. At least 290 people have been murdered thus far, but
the body count continues to rise at a dramatic pace as more mutilated bodies
are pulled from the rubble, previous victims succumb to their wounds and new
casualties are created by the minute.



What has and is occurring is nothing short of a war crime, yet the Israeli
public relations machine is in full-swing, churning out lies by the minute.



Once and for all it is time to expose the myths that they have created.



1. Israelis have claimed to have ended the occupation of the Gaza
Strip in 2005.



While Israel
has indeed removed the settlements from the tiny coastal Strip, they have in no
way ended the occupation. They remained in control of the borders, the airspace
and the waterways of Gaza, and have
carried out frequent raids and targeted assassinations since the disengagement.



Furthermore, since 2006 Israel
has imposed a comprehensive siege on the Strip. For over two years, Gazans have
lived on the edge of starvation and without the most basic necessities of human
life, such as cooking or heating oil and basic medications. This siege has
already caused a humanitarian catastrophe which has only been exacerbated by
the dramatic increase in Israeli military aggression.



2. Israel
claims that Hamas violated the cease-fire and pulled out of it unilaterally.



Hamas indeed respected their side of the ceasefire, except on those
occasions early on when Israel
carried out major offensives in the West Bank. In the
last two months, the ceasefire broke down with Israelis killing several
Palestinians and resulting in the response of Hamas. In other words, Hamas has
not carried out an unprovoked attack throughout the period of the cease-fire.



Israel,
however, did not live up to any of its obligations of ending the siege and allowing
vital humanitarian aid to resume in Gaza.
Rather than the average of 450 trucks per day being allowed across the border,
on the best days, only eighty have been allowed in - with the border remaining
hermetically sealed 70% of the time. Throughout the supposed 'cease-fire'
Gazans have been forced to live like animals, with a total of 262 dying due to
the inaccessibility of proper medical care.



Now after hundreds dead and counting, it is Israel
who refuses to re-enter talks over a cease-fire. They are not intent on
securing peace as they claim; it is more and more clear that they are seeking
regime change - whatever the cost.



3. Israel
claims to be pursuing peace with 'peaceful Palestinians'.



Before the on-going massacre in the Gaza Strip, and throughout the entirety
of the Annapolis Peace Process, Israel
has continued and even intensified its occupation of the West Bank.
In 2008, settlement expansion increased by a factor of 38, a further 4,950
Palestinians were arrested - mostly from the West Bank, and
checkpoints rose from 521 to 699.



Furthermore, since the onset of the peace talks, Israel
has killed 546 Palestinians, among them 76 children. These gruesome statistics
are set to rise dramatically now, but previous Israeli transgressions should
not be forgotten amidst this most recent horror.



Only this morning, Israel
shot and killed a young peaceful protester in the West Bank
village of Nihlin,
and has injured dozens more over the last few hours. It is certain that they
will continue to employ deadly force at non-violent demonstrations and we
expect a sizable body count in the West Bank as a
result. If Israel
is in fact pursuing peace with 'good Palestinians', who are they talking about?



4. Israel
is acting in self-defense.



It is difficult to claim self defense in a confrontation which they
themselves have sparked, but they are doing it anyway. Self-defense is
reactionary, while the actions of Israel
over the last two days have been clearly premeditated. Not only did the Israeli
press widely report the ongoing public relations campaign being undertaken by
Israel to prepare Israeli and international public opinion for the attack, but
Israel has also reportedly tried to convince the Palestinians that an attack
was not coming by briefly opening crossings and reporting future meetings on
the topic. They did so to insure that casualties would be maximized and that
the citizens of Gaza would be
unprepared for their impending slaughter.



It is also misleading to claim self-defense in a conflict with such an overwhelming
asymmetry of power. Israel
is the largest military force in the region, and the fifth largest in the
world. Furthermore, they are the fourth largest exporter of arms and have a
military industrial complex rivaling that of the United
  States. In other words, Israel
has always had a comprehensive monopoly over the use of force, and much like
its super power ally, Israel
uses war as an advertising showcase of its many instruments of death.



5. Israel
claims to have struck military targets only.



Even while image after image of dead and mutilated women and children flash
across our televisions, Israel
brazenly claims that their munitions expertly struck only military
installations. We know this to be false as many other civilian sites have been
hit by airstrikes including a hospital and mosque.



In the most densely populated area on the planet, tons upon tons of
explosives have been dropped. The first estimates of injured are in the
thousands. Israel
will claim that these are merely 'collateral damage' or accidental deaths. The
sheer ridiculousness and inhumanity of such a claim should sicken the world
community.



6. Israel
claims that it is attacking Hamas and not the Palestinian people.



First and foremost, missiles do not differentiate people by their political
affiliation; they simply kill everyone in their path. Israel
knows this, and so do Palestinians. What Israel
also knows, but is not saying public ally, is how much their recent actions
will actually strengthen Hamas - whose message of resistance and revenge is
being echoed by the angry and grieving.



The targets of the strike, police and not Hamas militants, give us some clue
as to Israel's
mistaken intention. They are hoping to create anarchy in the Strip by removing
the pillar of law and order.



7. Israel
claims that Palestinians are the source of violence.



Let us be clear and unequivocal. The occupation of Palestine
since the War of 1967 has been and remains the root of violence between
Israelis and Palestinians. Violence can be ended with the occupation and the
granting of Palestine's national
and human rights. Hamas does not control the West Bank
and yet we remain occupied, our rights violated and our children killed.



With these myths understood, let us ponder the real reasons behind these
airstrikes; what we find may be even more disgusting than the act itself.



The leaders Israel
are holding press conferences, dressed in black, with sleeves rolled up.



'It's time to fight', they say, 'but it won't be easy.'



To prove just how hard it is, Livni, Olmert and Barak did not even wear
make-up to the press conference, and Barak has ended his presidential campaign
to focus on the Gaza campaign. What
heroes...what leaders...



We all know the truth: the suspension of the electioneering is exactly that
- electioneering.



Like John McCain's suspension of his presidential campaign to return to Washington
to 'deal with' the financial crisis, this act is little more than a publicity
stunt.



The candidates have to appear 'tough enough to lead', and there is seemingly
no better way of doing that than bathing in Palestinian blood.



'Look at me,' Livni says in her black suit and unkempt hair, 'I am a
warrior. I am strong enough to pull the trigger. Don't you feel more confident
about voting for me, now that you know I am as ruthless as Bibi Netanyahu?'



I do not know which is more disturbing, her and Barak, or the constituency
they are trying to please.



In the end, this will in no way improve the security of the average Israeli;
in fact it can be expected to get much worse in the coming days as the massacre
could presumably provoke a new generation of suicide bombers.



It will not undermine Hamas either, and it will not result in the three
fools, Barak, Livni and Olmert, looking 'tough'. Their misguided political
venture will likely blow up in their faces as did the brutally similar 2006
invasion of Lebanon.



In closing, there is another reason - beyond the internal politics of Israel
- why this attack has been allowed to occur: the complicity and silence of the
international community.



Israel
cannot and would not act against the will of its economic allies in Europe
or its military allies in the US.
Israel may be
pulling the trigger ending hundreds, perhaps even thousands of lives this week,
but it is the apathy of the world and the inhumane tolerance of Palestinian
suffering which allows this to occur.



'The evil only exists because the good remain silent'



From Occupied Palestine. . .



-- Dr. Mustafa Baghouthi



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