NefeshBarYochai
2024-06-08 01:29:22 UTC
BY YOUSEF M. ALJAMAL JUNE 7, 2024
For Palestinians, Israels violence began long before October 7, 2023.
The unfolding genocide in Gaza is the latest chapter in a series of
Israels settler-colonial practices to remove Palestinians by force
from their land. These practices began with the inception of the state
of Israel.
The most fateful year in modern Palestinian history was 1948, when
David Ben-Gurion unilaterally declared the creation of the state of
Israel and armed Zionist militias massacred Palestinians and evicted
thousands from their homes at gunpoint. Palestinians know this as the
Nakba, or catastrophe. This is not ancient history. Israeli
politicians, before and after October 7, threatened a second Nakba
against Palestinians. Israeli forces in Gaza painted graffiti on
destroyed homes in Gaza that read, Nakba 2023.
Israels apartheid practices against Palestinians also started in
1948, when Israel caged Palestinian communities in Lod, Nazareth, and
Haifa in wired areas and issued discriminatory laws against those
Palestinians who stayed and those forcibly displaced. Soon after,
Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967 and the
discriminatory laws and practices were expanded to the occupied
Palestinian territory.
At the time, Israel described the act of capturing what remained of
historic Palestine in 1967 as finishing the job. The job was to
ethnically cleanse the survivors of the Nakba and capture the
territories left unoccupied in 1948.
Many Palestinians were displaced by war and were now under Israeli
occupation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Gaza
Strip where much of the Palestinian population sought refuge. The
capture of Palestinians within the new Israeli State in 1948 and 1967
meant more than 811,000 Palestinians lived under occupation then, and
with these two events, all Palestinians were now subject to Israels
policies of apartheid.
Soon after Israel captured the Gaza Strip in 1967, for example, it
introduced schemes to get rid of the young population of Gaza. In
1969, Moshe Dayan, Israels Defense Minister, introduced a plan to
transfer young refugees in Gaza to Latin America. Between 1948 and
1967, Israeli army raids into Palestinian refugee camps of Rafah and
Khan Younis killed hundreds of Palestinians, some of whom were stood
against the famous Barquq Castle Wall and were killed, sometimes in
front of their families.
Today the Barquq Castle itself is in ruins because of Israels
destruction of Khan Younis.
Throughout the 1970s, Israel exploited Palestinian refugees as cheap
labor to build Israeli settlements and with the outbreak of the 1987
Palestinian Intifada, and the mounting Israeli state and settler
violence against Palestinians, apartheid practices and laws have only
increased, suffocating Palestinians even more and making their lives
almost impossible. This has been especially visible with travel
restrictions, access to water, land and natural resources, and access
to medical care.
The clearest manifestation of this permit regime, and the brutal
realities of Israeli apartheid, has been seen in Gaza.
After 1993 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA),
which was supposed to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian
state, it became a requirement for Palestinians to have Israeli
permits to move from Gaza to the West Bank. Israel has used this
regime of permits to extort Palestinians, especially Palestinian
patients in need of medical treatment. Hundreds of Palestinians have
passed away in Gaza due to the denial of permits, including my sister
at the age of 26 in 2007. In some cases, Israel would grant
Palestinian cancer patients permits to have the first chemotherapy
session, but not the second one. Palestinians were never allowed to
have their own hospitals equipped with the needed devices to have full
access to healthcare without being dependent on Israel.
In addition, Israel created two buffer zones that restricted
Palestinian access to their lands in the east and north of Gaza, which
has Gazas most fertile land, rendering 30% of Gazas fertile land
inaccessible to Palestinian farmers. This included spraying
Palestinian agricultural produce with chemicals, shooting at farmers
and arresting them, and sometimes bulldozing Palestinian farmland.
Israeli control over Gazas agriculture and economy has been felt in
many ways with devastating consequences. For example, Palestinian
farmers were encouraged to grow strawberries despite the fact that
this was not the best agricultural practice for Gazas resources and
soil. Because of Israels policies, Gaza lacks clean water, with 97%
of water unfit for human consumption. This was all done to benefit the
Israeli market, as these strawberries were sent to Israel or exported
to the outside world as Made in Israel. At sea, Palestinian
fishermen were not allowed, in most times, to fish at more than three
nautical miles, and dozens of them were killed or arrested by the
Israeli navy. In fact, it was common to have Israeli warships fire at
Palestinians on Gaza beaches, killing some of them and terrifying
others who were simply enjoying the only place in Gaza that gave
people a sense of freedom beyond the siege.
Finally, when this apartheid bureaucracy and suffocating siege were
not enough, Israel waged multiple offensives on Gaza in 2006, 2008-9,
2012, 2014, 2021, and 2022, ranging in length and brutality. Israel
would attack Gaza every couple of years as part of its policy of
mowing the lawn, to make sure that Palestinians are reminded that
Israel maintains control over their lives. This was all done while
Gaza was still under tight Israeli siege. Thousands of Palestinians
were killed during these offensives.
In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza started a powerful protest movement
named the Great March of Return, demanding an end to the blockade of
Gaza and the right of return for Palestinians. Israel killed 300
Palestinians during these peaceful protests.
Israel has repeatedly targeted Gaza for particularly brutal violence
for three main reasons: The people of Gaza are known for their
resistance to Israels occupation and apartheid throughout history,
the majority of people in Gaza are refugees from towns and cities
across the border, and Gaza has one of the highly densely populated
centers in the world.
Some Israelis say Gaza should be turned into a parking lot, a
genocidal statement that unfortunately was echoed by U.S. Congress
member Max Miller. Israeli settlers have also promoted the idea of
turning Gaza into a new beach resort and gifting it to Israelis
fighting in the army and their families. The genocide of the
Palestinians was seen by right-wing political parties in Israel as a
pre-condition to recolonize Gaza, which would help them realize their
goal of Greater Israel. These all reflect the same genocidal logic of
wanting to remove Palestinians in Gaza, and elsewhere, from the land
and seeing them as non-existent.
Ultimately these quotes and attitudes show Israel is now progressing
from apartheid to genocide and extermination.
As the history above, and the events of the last eight months, show,
the Israeli government has never been satisfied with the presence of
Palestinians, not in Gaza, in the West Bank, or in Israel itself. For
decades, Palestinians were managed through ethnic cleansing,
exploitation, extermination, and apartheid policies and practices.
When these policies didnt achieve the desired objectives, Israel has
now turned to genocide against Palestinians to push them out of Gaza
and take full control of the territory.
So far, the Israeli government has not been able to eliminate the
Palestinians in Gaza, but it has come at a very high cost. More than
36,000 Palestinians have been killed, 10,000 are buried under the
rubble, and more than 80,000 are injured. The whole of Gazas
infrastructure has been rendered useless, turning much of Gaza into
rubble. In the West Bank, Palestinians are also under attack. Since
October 7, Israeli settlers and military have killed more than 500
people in the West Bank, including 148 children.
The question is what happens next? Will the enablers of occupation,
apartheid, and now genocide continue unchecked? Or can we collectively
stop this brutal violence and end not just the genocide but the
systemic injustices from which it came? To do this we must work to end
Israels system of apartheid in Palestine.
There is a massive pro-Palestine movement growing across the globe,
both in the streets and in the halls of power. People are finding
creative and courageous ways to express their solidarity with Gaza.
But the situation is urgent; Palestinians dont have the luxury of
time, as each day brings more death and destruction.
The millions of people now calling for a ceasefire should join in the
longer-term efforts to dismantle Israeli apartheid and build a society
where all can live with dignity and respect. Just as so many people
took action against apartheid in South Africa, we must redouble our
efforts to end apartheid and genocide in Gaza.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/israels-progression-from-apartheid-to-genocide/
For Palestinians, Israels violence began long before October 7, 2023.
The unfolding genocide in Gaza is the latest chapter in a series of
Israels settler-colonial practices to remove Palestinians by force
from their land. These practices began with the inception of the state
of Israel.
The most fateful year in modern Palestinian history was 1948, when
David Ben-Gurion unilaterally declared the creation of the state of
Israel and armed Zionist militias massacred Palestinians and evicted
thousands from their homes at gunpoint. Palestinians know this as the
Nakba, or catastrophe. This is not ancient history. Israeli
politicians, before and after October 7, threatened a second Nakba
against Palestinians. Israeli forces in Gaza painted graffiti on
destroyed homes in Gaza that read, Nakba 2023.
Israels apartheid practices against Palestinians also started in
1948, when Israel caged Palestinian communities in Lod, Nazareth, and
Haifa in wired areas and issued discriminatory laws against those
Palestinians who stayed and those forcibly displaced. Soon after,
Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967 and the
discriminatory laws and practices were expanded to the occupied
Palestinian territory.
At the time, Israel described the act of capturing what remained of
historic Palestine in 1967 as finishing the job. The job was to
ethnically cleanse the survivors of the Nakba and capture the
territories left unoccupied in 1948.
Many Palestinians were displaced by war and were now under Israeli
occupation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Gaza
Strip where much of the Palestinian population sought refuge. The
capture of Palestinians within the new Israeli State in 1948 and 1967
meant more than 811,000 Palestinians lived under occupation then, and
with these two events, all Palestinians were now subject to Israels
policies of apartheid.
Soon after Israel captured the Gaza Strip in 1967, for example, it
introduced schemes to get rid of the young population of Gaza. In
1969, Moshe Dayan, Israels Defense Minister, introduced a plan to
transfer young refugees in Gaza to Latin America. Between 1948 and
1967, Israeli army raids into Palestinian refugee camps of Rafah and
Khan Younis killed hundreds of Palestinians, some of whom were stood
against the famous Barquq Castle Wall and were killed, sometimes in
front of their families.
Today the Barquq Castle itself is in ruins because of Israels
destruction of Khan Younis.
Throughout the 1970s, Israel exploited Palestinian refugees as cheap
labor to build Israeli settlements and with the outbreak of the 1987
Palestinian Intifada, and the mounting Israeli state and settler
violence against Palestinians, apartheid practices and laws have only
increased, suffocating Palestinians even more and making their lives
almost impossible. This has been especially visible with travel
restrictions, access to water, land and natural resources, and access
to medical care.
The clearest manifestation of this permit regime, and the brutal
realities of Israeli apartheid, has been seen in Gaza.
After 1993 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA),
which was supposed to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian
state, it became a requirement for Palestinians to have Israeli
permits to move from Gaza to the West Bank. Israel has used this
regime of permits to extort Palestinians, especially Palestinian
patients in need of medical treatment. Hundreds of Palestinians have
passed away in Gaza due to the denial of permits, including my sister
at the age of 26 in 2007. In some cases, Israel would grant
Palestinian cancer patients permits to have the first chemotherapy
session, but not the second one. Palestinians were never allowed to
have their own hospitals equipped with the needed devices to have full
access to healthcare without being dependent on Israel.
In addition, Israel created two buffer zones that restricted
Palestinian access to their lands in the east and north of Gaza, which
has Gazas most fertile land, rendering 30% of Gazas fertile land
inaccessible to Palestinian farmers. This included spraying
Palestinian agricultural produce with chemicals, shooting at farmers
and arresting them, and sometimes bulldozing Palestinian farmland.
Israeli control over Gazas agriculture and economy has been felt in
many ways with devastating consequences. For example, Palestinian
farmers were encouraged to grow strawberries despite the fact that
this was not the best agricultural practice for Gazas resources and
soil. Because of Israels policies, Gaza lacks clean water, with 97%
of water unfit for human consumption. This was all done to benefit the
Israeli market, as these strawberries were sent to Israel or exported
to the outside world as Made in Israel. At sea, Palestinian
fishermen were not allowed, in most times, to fish at more than three
nautical miles, and dozens of them were killed or arrested by the
Israeli navy. In fact, it was common to have Israeli warships fire at
Palestinians on Gaza beaches, killing some of them and terrifying
others who were simply enjoying the only place in Gaza that gave
people a sense of freedom beyond the siege.
Finally, when this apartheid bureaucracy and suffocating siege were
not enough, Israel waged multiple offensives on Gaza in 2006, 2008-9,
2012, 2014, 2021, and 2022, ranging in length and brutality. Israel
would attack Gaza every couple of years as part of its policy of
mowing the lawn, to make sure that Palestinians are reminded that
Israel maintains control over their lives. This was all done while
Gaza was still under tight Israeli siege. Thousands of Palestinians
were killed during these offensives.
In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza started a powerful protest movement
named the Great March of Return, demanding an end to the blockade of
Gaza and the right of return for Palestinians. Israel killed 300
Palestinians during these peaceful protests.
Israel has repeatedly targeted Gaza for particularly brutal violence
for three main reasons: The people of Gaza are known for their
resistance to Israels occupation and apartheid throughout history,
the majority of people in Gaza are refugees from towns and cities
across the border, and Gaza has one of the highly densely populated
centers in the world.
Some Israelis say Gaza should be turned into a parking lot, a
genocidal statement that unfortunately was echoed by U.S. Congress
member Max Miller. Israeli settlers have also promoted the idea of
turning Gaza into a new beach resort and gifting it to Israelis
fighting in the army and their families. The genocide of the
Palestinians was seen by right-wing political parties in Israel as a
pre-condition to recolonize Gaza, which would help them realize their
goal of Greater Israel. These all reflect the same genocidal logic of
wanting to remove Palestinians in Gaza, and elsewhere, from the land
and seeing them as non-existent.
Ultimately these quotes and attitudes show Israel is now progressing
from apartheid to genocide and extermination.
As the history above, and the events of the last eight months, show,
the Israeli government has never been satisfied with the presence of
Palestinians, not in Gaza, in the West Bank, or in Israel itself. For
decades, Palestinians were managed through ethnic cleansing,
exploitation, extermination, and apartheid policies and practices.
When these policies didnt achieve the desired objectives, Israel has
now turned to genocide against Palestinians to push them out of Gaza
and take full control of the territory.
So far, the Israeli government has not been able to eliminate the
Palestinians in Gaza, but it has come at a very high cost. More than
36,000 Palestinians have been killed, 10,000 are buried under the
rubble, and more than 80,000 are injured. The whole of Gazas
infrastructure has been rendered useless, turning much of Gaza into
rubble. In the West Bank, Palestinians are also under attack. Since
October 7, Israeli settlers and military have killed more than 500
people in the West Bank, including 148 children.
The question is what happens next? Will the enablers of occupation,
apartheid, and now genocide continue unchecked? Or can we collectively
stop this brutal violence and end not just the genocide but the
systemic injustices from which it came? To do this we must work to end
Israels system of apartheid in Palestine.
There is a massive pro-Palestine movement growing across the globe,
both in the streets and in the halls of power. People are finding
creative and courageous ways to express their solidarity with Gaza.
But the situation is urgent; Palestinians dont have the luxury of
time, as each day brings more death and destruction.
The millions of people now calling for a ceasefire should join in the
longer-term efforts to dismantle Israeli apartheid and build a society
where all can live with dignity and respect. Just as so many people
took action against apartheid in South Africa, we must redouble our
efforts to end apartheid and genocide in Gaza.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/israels-progression-from-apartheid-to-genocide/