It is now the fourth day of the Israeli assault on Gaza. Well over a hundred people are confirmed dead, and those numbers are rising by the hour. Israel has fired warning shots on Al Wafa hospital [1] and has bombed a center for people with disabilities [2] and caused multiple deaths there. It is well established that assaulting hospitals is illegal under International Humanitarian Law, Chapter 11, Rule 35 but it seems that in the onslaught in Gaza, everything is permitted as it was 5 years ago when Israel used White Phosphorous against the civilian population [3], an act forbidden by the rules of war. But my intention is not to pick and choose various Israeli offenses during this particular bombing. I want to show you the bigger picture.

While reading the discussions of every single Israeli bombing of Gaza you will find, without a doubt, people putting blame on Hamas for firing rockets. State dignitaries from all around the world are parroting the same response that „Israel has the right to defend itself.“. Defend itself from what? They themselves have broken the last ceasefire 287 times. [4] Let me reiterate that for you. Israel has broken the last ceasefire two hundred eighty seven times. But, ok, rockets are being fired by Hamas. Fine. Now let’s put those rockets into perspective.

First thing’s first, what rockets? The rockets fired from Gaza on Israel are home-made. They don’t have much firepower (their capacity is similar to a rocket propelled grenade) and since 2000 up to 2012 they have resulted in 64 civilian deaths. That is approximately equivalent to the number of people killed in Gaza in the last two days. Let me reiterate that for you: Gaza rockets have killed in 14 years the same amount of people Israel has killed in the last two days. How come? Does Hamas’ aim suck that much? Well, to be honest, it’s not even Hamas who launches most of the rockets. The majority is launched by Islamic Jihad and other unknown sources, and only then by Hamas, Fatah and other smaller groups. So when rockets get launched from Gaza, and when Israel blames and bombs „Hamas“ targets, that’s statistically incorrect. And given that the majority of Israeli bombings are innocent civilians, the conclusion that we can come to in the end is that Israel is bombing people for whom they don’t exactly know if they even committed an offense, and they are even failing at that, killing civilians instead of what they call „legitimate targets“ which they are, of course, not. In fact, it would just be easier for Israel to rename the „Gaza Strip“ to „Hamas“ and spare themselves the trouble of finding a reason to bomb people. Not to say that Hamas in itself is without a flaw (oh, it has its own, very rich plethora of flaws), but to blame them exclusively for the rockets, and use that as an excuse to bomb a civilian population is a lie.

Where were we? Oh yeah, how come their aim sucks so much? Well, they are not an army, they don’t have the technology to aim at anything but a general area. In fact, Palestine does not have an army. It has no ground force, it has no navy and it certainly doesn’t have an air force. On the other side, Israel has one of the most powerful military forces in the world. So we basically have F-16 fighter jets, drones and advanced technology pounding the civilian population of Gaza. In no occasion was that disproportion more obvious than in the Gaza War, also called Operation Cast Lead which was taking place during the three weeks in December 2008 and January 2009 when Israeli forces killed 1417 Palestinians out of which were 926 civilians [5], while Israel counted 10 military casualties (3 of which were killed by friendly fire) and 2 civilian victims. And for the cherry on top, Israel used White Phosphorous shells on Al Wafa hospital.

But why are the ungrateful terrorists even shooting rockets into Israel? After all, Israel is sending trucks after trucks of humanitarian relief, food and medicine to them every single day. True. But why do the people of Gaza even need humanitarian relief? Why, of course, because Israel is not only occupying their whole country, but is also holding the Gaza Strip under blockade for almost 10 years. That means that nothing can enter Palestine without Israelis checking it. It also means a lot of things can’t enter, period. And, about that food the generous Israelis were giving to the people of Gaza? It turns out they calculated the smallest amount they can give them without the people actually starving to death. [6] Not that it helped to prevent a humanitarian crisis, though. In 2006 Israel bombed the Gaza power plant which impeded the power supply needed for medical services. [7] In June 2005, there were 3,900 factories in the city employing 35,000 people, and in December 2007, there were 195 factories remaining, employing 1,700 people. The construction industry was also affected, with tens of thousands of labourers out of work. The blockade damaged the agriculture sector and 40,000 workers dependent on cash crops were left without income. [8] The unemployment rate in Gaza in 2007 was 40%. The medical services in the Strip are on the brink of collapse. [9]

Even if that was it, if nothing else was wrong with the Israeli treatment for Palestine, it would be more than enough for people to rebel and resist. To become „terrorists“. But alas, it is not it, because the war in Gaza, the bombing, the deaths, the systematic abuse is not about terrorism, it’s not about rockets and it’s not about Israel’s right to defend itself, it’s about the land grab. It’s about the colonial war Israel is waging on Palestine. The people of Gaza are resisting not only because they are pariahs for decades, in blockade for years and bombed every once in a while, but because they are refugees who want their country back. The people of Gaza are children and grandchildren of those who were ethnically cleansed from what is now modern Israel, in Al Nakba, the Catastrophy, along with 750 000 other Palestinians. And after Israel kicked 750 000 Palestinians out of their homes, they occupied Gaza and the West Bank after winning the 6 Day War in 1967 and started building settlements mainly in the West Bank. In the 1993 before the, now dead and buried, Oslo Agreement, there were 250 000 Israeli settlers in Palestine. Today there are half a million. The West Bank is divided in Bantustans, it has a segregated roadway system, the West Bank wall is built on Palestinian land, cutting Palestinian villages in half. The Palestinians of West Bank are denied water resources on their own land, 15 000 of their homes were demolished and they are subjected to military occupation, systematic segregation and the violence of armed settlers which harass them with impunity. Their women are giving birth on countless checkpoints scattered through the West Bank as a „security measure“, and people cannot travel from one city to another knowing when they will come to their destination or whether they will even be allowed to pass. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]

All in all, the people of Gaza are descendants of a part of 750 000 Palestinians which have been ethnically cleansed from their land (and which have the right to return to that land, as do all refugees, only Palestinians are not allowed to do this), they are being occupied, colonized, blockaded, and killed with impunity, their occupator is breaking ceasefires without a peep from the international community and their friends, family and compatriots in the West Bank are victims of systematic segregation and military occupation which is proclaimed illegal by the UN resolution 242. [15] That is why the rockets are flying into Israel, and not because they are inherently violent terrorists. When the Israeli society can recognize that their country is, for decades, systematically oppressing people from which they stole the land on which they are now building settlements, and when the people of Israel stop being silently (or actively) complicit in those crimes, and start pressuring their governments to abandon the colonial settler policy, maybe then we could see some progress.

Regards,

D.

[1] http://defendtherescuers.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/warning-shots-reportedly-fired-at-al-wafa-hospital-gaza-full-attack-threatened/

[2] http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/israel-bombs-hit-centre-disabled-gaza-201471274035753506.html

[3] http://electronicintifada.net/content/report-excoriates-israels-use-white-phosphorous-gaza/8161

[4] http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/gazaunderattack-4th-israeli-violation-of-truce-palestinian-injured-after-being-shot-by-israeli-troops-in-gaza/

[4] Palestinian Center for Human Rights figures

[5] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/17/israeli-military-calorie-limit-gaza

[6] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3308615,00.html

[7] http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/downloads/oxfam_gaza_lowres.pdf

[8] http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gazas-healthcare-services-brink-collapse-1270820384

[9] http://visualizingpalestine.org/infographic/Palestinian-Israeli-Peace-Talks-Settlements-Oslo

[10] http://visualizingpalestine.org/infographic/Israeli-ID-System-Palestinian-Segregation

[11] http://visualizingpalestine.org/infographic/Olive-Harvest

[12] http://visualizingpalestine.org/infographic/wb-water

[13] http://visualizingpalestine.org/infographic/Bus-Segregation

[14] http://visualizingpalestine.org/infographic/checkpoint-births

[15] http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7D35E1F729DF491C85256EE700686136