[Peace-discuss] Never again(st)

[Morton K. Brussel]

Never Again? Next to us (U.S.), Europe is next in line (it's a long  
list) for opprobrium in this tragedy.


Europe's Collusion in Israel's Slow Genocide

By OMAR BARGHOUTI

The European Union, Israel's largest trade partner in the world, is  
watching by as Israel tightens its barbaric siege around Gaza,  
collectively punishing 1.5 million Palestinian civilians, condemning  
them to devastation, and visiting imminent death upon hundreds of  
kidney dialysis and heart patients, prematurely born babies, and all  
others dependent on electric power for their very survival.

By freezing fuel and electric power supplies to Gaza, Israel, the  
occupying power, is essentially guaranteeing that "clean" water --  
only by name, as Gaza's water is perhaps the most polluted in the  
whole region, after decades of Israeli theft and abuse -- will not be  
pumped out and properly distributed to homes and institutions;  
hospitals will not be able to function adequately, leading to the  
eventual death of many, particularly the most vulnerable; whatever  
factories that are still working despite the siege will now be forced  
to close, pushing the already extremely high unemployment rate even  
higher; sewage treatment will come to a halt, further polluting  
Gaza's precious little water supply; academic institutions and  
schools will not be able to provide their usual services; and lives  
of all civilians will be severely disrupted, if not irreversibly  
damaged. And Europe is apathetically watching.

Princeton academic Richard Falk considered Israel's siege a "prelude  
to genocide," even before this latest crime of altogether cutting off  
energy supplies. Now, Israel's crimes in Gaza can accurately be  
categorized as acts of genocide, albeit slow. According to Article II  
of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the  
Crime of Genocide, the term is defined as:

     "[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy,  
in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,  
as such:

     (a) Killing members of the group;

     (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
     (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life  
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in  
part; ."

Clearly, Israel's hermetic siege of Gaza, designed to kill, cause  
serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately inflicts conditions  
of life calculated to bring about partial and gradual physical  
destruction, qualifies as an act of genocide, if not all out genocide  
yet. And the EU is suspiciously silent.

But why accuse Europe, in particular, of collusion in this crime when  
almost the entire international community is not lifting a finger,  
and the UN's obsequious Secretary General, who surpassed all his  
predecessors in obedience to the US government, is pathetically  
paying only lip service? In addition, what of the US government  
itself, Israel's most generous sponsor that is directly implicated in  
the current siege, especially after president George Bush, on his  
recent visit, gave a hardly-subtle green light to Israeli prime  
minister, Ehud Olmert, to ravage Gaza? Why not blame the  
Palestinians' quiet Arab brethren, particularly Egypt -- the only  
country that can immediately break the siege by reopening the Rafah  
crossing and supplying through it the necessary fuel, electric power  
and emergency supplies? And finally, why not blame the Ramallah-based  
Palestinian Authority, whose subservient and visionless leader openly  
boasted in a press conference its "complete agreement" with Bush on  
all matters of substance?

After Israel, the US is, without doubt, the guiltiest party in the  
current crime. Under the influence of a fundamentalist, militaristic,  
neo-conservative ideology that has taken over its helms of power and  
an omnipotent Zionist lobby that is unparalleled in its sway, the US  
is in a category by itself. It goes without saying that the PA, the  
UN, as well as Arab and international world governments maintaining  
business as usual with Israel should all be held accountable for  
acquiescing, whether directly or indirectly, to Israel's crimes  
against humanity in Gaza. It is also true that each one of the above  
bears the legal and moral responsibility to intervene and apply  
whatever necessary pressure to stop the crime before thousands  
perish. But the EU commands a unique position in all this. It is not  
only silent and apathetic; in most European countries Israel and  
Israeli institutions are currently welcomed and sought after with  
unprecedented warmth, generosity and deference in all fields --  
economic, cultural, academic, athletic, etc. For instance, Israel was  
invited as the guest of honor to a major book fair in Turin, Italy.  
Israeli-government funded films are featuring in film festivals all  
over the continent. Israeli products, from avocadoes and oranges to  
hi-tech security systems, are flooding European markets like never  
before. Israeli academic institutions are enjoying a special, very  
lucrative, association agreement with the relevant organs in the EU.  
Israeli dance groups, singing bands and orchestras are invited to  
European tours and festivals as if Israel were not only a normal, but  
in effect a most favoured, member of the so-called "civilized" world.  
Official Europe's once lacklustre embrace of Israel has turned into  
an intense, open and enigmatic love affair.

If Europe thinks it can thus repent for its Holocaust against its own  
Jewish population, it is in fact shamefully and consciously  
facilitating the committal of fresh acts of genocide against the  
people of Palestine. But Palestinians, it appears, do not count for  
much, as we are viewed not only by Israel, but also by its good old  
"white" sponsors and allies as lesser, or relative, humans. The  
continent that invented modern genocide and was responsible for  
massacring in the last two centuries more human beings, mostly  
"relative humans," than all other continents put together is covering  
up crimes that are reminiscent in quality, though certainly not in  
quantity, of its own heinous crimes against humanity.

In no other international affair, perhaps, can the European  
establishment be accused of being as detached from and indifferent to  
its own public opinion. While calls for boycotting Israel as an  
apartheid state are slowly but consistently spreading among European  
civil society organizations and trade unions, drawing disturbing  
parallels to the boycott of South African apartheid, European  
governments are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves from  
the overtly complicit US position vs. Israel. Even European clichés  
of condemnation and "expressing deep concern" have become rarer than  
ever nowadays. Moreover, Israel's relentless and defiant violation of  
Europe's own human rights laws and conditions are ignored whenever  
anyone questions whether Israel should continue to benefit from its  
magnanimous association agreement with the EU despite its military  
occupation, colonization and horrific record of human rights abuse  
against its Palestinian victims. If this is not complicity, what is?

Morality aside, sinking Gaza into a sea of darkness, poverty, death  
and despair cannot bode well for Europe. By actively propping up an  
environment conducive to the rise of fanaticism and desperate  
violence near its borders, Europe is foolishly inviting havoc to its  
doorstep. Instead of heeding -- or at least seriously considering --  
calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel,  
adopted by virtually the entire spectrum of Palestinian civil  
society, it may soon have to reckon with uncontainable forces of  
irrational and indiscriminate violence and its resulting chaos.

It seems European elites are currently determined never to oppose  
Israel, no matter what crimes it commits. It is as if the bellowing  
-- and increasingly hypocritical -- slogan upheld by Jewish survivors  
of European genocide, "Never Again!", is now espoused by European  
elites with one difference: the two letter, 's' and 't', are added at  
the end.

Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian political analyst and  
founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and  
Cultural Boycott of Israel.
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