What You Don’t Know About Gaza…

gaza


Editor’s note: I was stunned that this article by RASHID KHALIDI appeared in the NYTimes since they are the leading supremacist mouthpiece. Someone was surely fired for letting this find print.

NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.

THE GAZANS
Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

THE OCCUPATION
The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

THE BLOCKADE
Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.

The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.

THE CEASE-FIRE
Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.

WAR CRIMES
The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”

Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East.”

24 Responses to “What You Don’t Know About Gaza…”

  1. Royal says:

    …just another form of oppression masked with violence…

  2. good, overlooked points.
    nice re-post.

  3. ovid bowsprit says:

    Here we go again with the 1948 bullshit. Look, the place was a shithole protectorate of Britain up until that point. The so-called Palestinians at that time wouldn’t have known what you were talking about if you called them Palestinians. Palestine was what the English called the place. When the refugees from the European holocaust arrived, they joined with the native jews that were living there. There was no irrigation in 1948 unless the British built it. After the Israelis kicked the Brits out, they watered the friggin desert. You ever been there? Don’t talk about that Palestinian shit unless you friggin know. Hamas are killers. How can we understand the mentality of people who would shield their sorry asses around families and children. Fuck them.

  4. E says:

    “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”

    Now that’s hardbody.

  5. the_dallas says:

    As soon as Hamas (and Hezbollah) are deader than dead I am going to Israel to eff a Palestinian who-are.

    And who’s to stop me?

    Muuaaaaaaaaahhaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa!

  6. Smear says:

    It’s a bloody mess. Organised(?) religion has a lot to fucking answer for in this world we live in.
    “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.” Damn.

  7. ovid bowsprit says:

    word up

  8. the_dallas says:

    What is wrong with these Palestinians anyhoo? These savages had no idea what water was until the Eurpoeans came to their rescue, and this is how they repay them?

    Sure the displaced Europeans could have emigrated to a million other places were Jews were already living but they decided to stake their tents (figuratively speaking) where they would receive the greatest amount of Western aid.

    Do you think that England wanted several million European immigrants? Neither did the United States. But Britain and the U.S. were willing to pay a shitload of money if these people relocated to the desert to keep an eye on the Africans and the Persians or fear they might push off their imperialist shackles.

    Just like the native Anericans, the Palestinians are poised on the cusp of extinction. They can’t win, and they shouldn’t win. They should just die were they lie that way Israel can move in the the bulldozers and push the whole lot of Gaza into the sea.

  9. webbie352 says:

    DP i know you like the NBA.

    can you please do a piece on Lebron
    i really want to know what you think about him.

    i guess his game, style & maybe legacy.

  10. the_dallas says:

    Ask and you shall be rewarded. Last nights game was interesting because I first thought the game was being played in Boston since the Celts were in white uni’s.

    LBJ is a beast but the season is a looooong way from finished. And at the end of that day isn’t how we finish what matters in the first place?

  11. Combat Jack says:

    Ovid Bowspirit’s argument sounds just like when white says Blacks should be happy they were enslaved and brought to America where they were introduced to a modern society and had the opportunity to be introduced to God, Jaysus, the bible, guns and butter.

  12. mercilesz says:

    Ovid is being serious? Dallas is obviously not. Euros who claim hebrew are not jewish in fact African Jews had no idea that Euro Jews existed. As a matter of fact Jewish? Jew means god…..IO…means god the ever coming…I male O female put em together and what do u get? The messiah. Im not gonna get all preachy today but why did the Israelis ask the ethiopians to come thru and plant crops if that was their homeland? those people who live in israel are not indigenous…they are city dwellers of europe russia and NYC who dont know shit about palestine. YES palestine is a state and the humans that live/d there cultivated that land and created a society that worked. Guns shud be banned…They make punks feel tuff.

  13. E says:

    “…guns and butter.”

    Now that’s hillary (no Clinton).

  14. wax says:

    these posts are pointless, because this shit will be going on long after everyone commenting here is dead.

  15. mercilesz says:

    Wax ur bugging….why don’t u do sumthing? or is life hopeless. I’m sure thats what people thought about slavery when NaT Turner was bustin headz open. Liberation doesn’t come…it must be taken maybe violently sumtimes but it must be taken from the opressor….not asked 4. Opression shud definitely not b ignored.

  16. ovid bowsprit says:

    Only partly serious.

  17. geneva_jones says:

    “..June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas…led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months”

    “My husband stopped beating me everyday – now it’s only once a month. See, he’s really TRYING.”

    If the African diaspora had been given a homeland (and a dessert that couldn’t grow a cactus) instead of 40 acres and a mule, you can bet they’d be protecting that shit till there was no one left standing.

  18. wax says:

    @mercilesz I’m a total pessimist and nihilist dawg !

  19. mercilesz says:

    geneva the african diaspora wasnt given shit. 40 acres and a mule? cmon…maybe if it was a spikes joint. shit never happened

  20. slumdog millionairess says:

    The African Diaspora gots nothing to do with the creation of Israel. If we had a homeland — which is rich cause we do, we just can’t figure out where on the continent we originated because shit was just that intentionally fucked up — oh, and it’s the homeland for HUMANITY — yes, it’s true we’d be fighting to save it. Unfortunately, the African diaspora doesn’t control the global web of economics that keep exploitation of Africa at the top of everyone’s Christmas list.

    The real problem is, why is Israel the homeland of Jews? Last time I checked, it was an artificial nation state created by the UK and US because they didn’t want to accept the post-WWII influx of Jews fleeing the anti-semitic political enterprise that passed for European public policy. Oh, and it was “free.” (see my earlier reference to the exploitation and colonization of the dark continent).

    Actually, now that I reread your comment, yes, you’re right. People are fighting like shit for their homeland. That would be the Palestinians who still have keys to the houses they got forced out of 40 odd years ago.

    I have nothing against wanting a place to land but call a spade a spade. If you take someone’s home, they’re going to want it back. AND, how sad is it that an arid piece of land artificially greened by a colonizing force that a group of dispossessed people were shoved into has now become some kind of rallying crying of identification, as if Jews really wanted to go there in the first place. The creation of Israel was the consolation prize to being shoved out of Europe…. Jews should be agitating to get back into THEIR own houses in Germany, et al.

    Hold the real bad guys accountable and don’t believe the hype.

  21. geneva_jones says:

    I hear what you’re saying. I agree that no one should get kicked out of their home. It may seem strange, but I respect the right of Palestinians to fight for their land. But blaming Israel for defending itself when Hamas broke the most recent cease fire?

    And I agree – it’s sad that a parcel of desert the size of NJ is the friggin’ holy grail (so to speak – don’t want to piss off the Christians). “Hold the real bad guys accountable” – hell, who do you start with?

    And, with respect, I didn’t mean to say there was a parallel between Africa and Israel, so much as the common challenges faced by people who have been fucked up the ass for centuries. I’m not comparing tragedies either, just to be clear.

    And hell, I don’t want to go back to where my family came from. Boiled potatoes and pogroms? Fuck that. Just too bad we didn’t wind up in Argentina.

  22. fundamenalists are crazy says:

    “boiled potatoes and pogroms?”

    can’t say that I blame you…gotta go someplace where they have hot sauce.

    good piece companion piece to the original post, again from the nyt. shocking!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/opinion/14goldberg-1.html

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