[Peace-discuss] Niloofar Shambayati @ News-Gazette: Israelis are aggressors, not victims

[Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss]

http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/guest-commentary/2014-07-27/israelis-are-aggressors-not-victims.html

Israelis are aggressors, not victims
Sun, 07/27/2014 - 7:00am | The News-Gazette
<http://www.news-gazette.com/author/news-gazette>
By Niloofar Shambayati

During Israel's recent assault on Gaza, President Barack Obama, Congress
and the American media have been sounding off the mantra of "Israel's right
to defend itself" against rockets from Gaza — a self-evident right, if
Israel were indeed the innocent victim of a military aggression, and not
its perpetrator.

The right to self-defense actually belongs to the Palestinians, who, as the
indigenous population of Palestine, have been subjected to ethnic cleansing
since 1947-8. This project will continue unless the U.S. stops vetoing U.N.
Security Council resolutions against Israel's illegal actions — so far, 42
such vetoes.

As of July 25, Israel's bombing campaign and the more recent addition of a
ground offensive have killed 800 and seriously wounded 5,500 Palestinians —
80 percent being unarmed civilians, including 200 children. The Israeli
government and the Obama administration have been explaining away the high
civilian casualty by accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields,
and placing their military installations among civilians.

They know well, though, that having the world's highest population density,
Gaza cannot afford its refugee and local populations residential
neighborhoods. Moreover, as Israeli journalist Amira Hass writes, Israel
itself has its military headquarters in civilian areas.

There is ample evidence to confirm that Israel's political and military
strategists are not just after militant Islamists and their military
installations, but use their war machine to instill terror in the hearts
and minds of children and adults trapped in these killing fields.

Norwegian physician Dr. Mads Gilbert, who has been treating the injured in
Gaza, describes the extreme damage that Israel's U.S.-made dense inert
metal explosives — DIME — inflict on their victims:

"People are torn apart. I mean, they're split at their mid-level. They lose
their arms and legs, and they're killed. They're charcoaled by the burns,
if they are hit by these DIME explosives," he said.

In addition, the Israeli army, which boasts of the precision of its
targeting, has killed many civilians who could not have been mistaken as
militants: Nine young men were torn into pieces and 15 more wounded as they
were watching a World Cup game in a beachfront cafe on July 9. On July 16,
four small children who were playing on the beach were killed by two rounds
of bombing. The civilians, who had taken refuge in a U.N. school, were
denied time to leave before the school was bombed, killing tens.

All this is nothing but terrorism, and America is its financier and sponsor.

Besides loss of life and severe injuries, the destruction of the remaining
infrastructure from Israel's bombings during the winter of 2008-09 and the
one-week assault in 2012 will further harm the health and the ability of
Gazans to make a living. People have irrevocably lost the use of 60 percent
of their agricultural land. The vast majority of their chicken coops, their
only flour mill, water tanks and sewage-treatment facilities are targeted
and destroyed; so is most of their electricity-generating capacity.

The harsh maritime, aerial and ground blockade that Israeli leaders have
maintained over Gaza since 2007 has made it next to impossible for the
people to acquire the needed material to fix damages to the infrastructure.

In addition, the blockade has been depriving the Gazans of the nutrition
they need to sustain themselves. Gisha, an Israeli human-rights
organization, has documented that in 2008, Israeli health experts had
calculated that in order to prevent malnutrition, 170 truckloads of food
should be allowed into Gaza — less than half the number of trucks entering
Gaza with foodstuff before the siege. The Israeli officials have lowered
this minimum to 67, doubled the number of trucks filled with empty-nutrient
foods, and have drastically reduced the amount of milk, fruits and
vegetables allowed into Gaza.

A Red Cross report leaked in 2008 concluded that "chronic malnutrition is
on a steadily rising trend and micro-nutrient deficiencies are of great
concern."

Before the start of the current military campaign, 80 percent of Gazans
were dependent on humanitarian aid to survive. Given this dire situation,
it shouldn't be hard to understand the level of anger and hatred toward
Israeli policymakers.

Now Hamas is being blamed for rejecting the cease-fire "plan," drafted by
Egypt's military rulers without input from Hamas. Hamas correctly maintains
that a brief cease-fire and return to the status quo is meaningless. They
point to the cease-fire of November 2012, which was to lead to the easing
of the Gaza siege but was ignored by Israel with the usual impunity.

This time, Hamas says, they will only accept a cease-fire based on the
recognition of the short-term demands of Palestinians. Among those are the
permanent lifting of the Israeli blockade, the extension of the small zone
imposed on Gaza fishermen, placing international forces at Gaza's borders
with Israel and Egypt, and non-interference of Israel in the formation and
workings of the Palestinian unity government, which has the blessing of the
Quartet (representatives of the U.N., U.S., EU and Russia).

Without due pressure, Israeli policy-makers will not accept these
conditions, which are within the framework of international law and past
consensus. The key to the success of this first step toward a just peace
between Palestinians and Israelis is the U.S., which is still unwilling to
be an honest broker.

This situation leaves Americans with only one ethical option: To persist in
our demand that our government end its unconditional and destructive
support of Israel, and/or to join the boycott, divestment and sanction
campaign until Israeli Jews decide to join the international community and
live in peace with their Palestinian cousins.

In the meantime, we have no right to deny the right of Palestinians to
resist the siege and the occupation through whatever means that are still
at their disposal.

*Niloofar Shambayati is a lecturer in humanities, specializing in modern
Middle East history and politics, at Parkland College in Champaign.*


===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1
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