Over 150 rockets were launched at Israel in November of last year. The Israeli government has reported that many of these hit civilian areas, some of which caused casualties and damage to infrastructure. These rocket attacks are wrong and unlawful, they help no one, and should stop. But what drives these small groups of armed Palestinians in Gaza to such an act of desperation?
Well, unfortunately, that list is long and goes back as far as 1948 with the systematic expulsion of the Palestinian people from their lands. The conflict has gone on ever since, with a heavy handed Israeli government determined to expel the remaining Palestinians.
The majority of the Palestinians now live in either the city of Gaza or on the West Bank. Israel has maintained a blockade of Gaza since 2007 which severely restricts the movement of goods into the area. This has made life impossible for the 1.6 million Palestinians living in Gaza city. Furthermore, in the West Bank, there are over 500 military check points that ensure there is no easy access for Palestinians to schools, hospitals, work places, and so on. The construction of a 700km wall by the Israeli government has meant that the Palestinian people are shut into their prison and are able to come and go only at the whim of their Israeli masters. It is disturbing that any government, past or present, would attempt to concentrate human beings in one area while using an armed force to take away their rights and freedoms.
Israeli settlements, which are in violation of International Law, are being constructed in and around Palestinian areas adding further fuel to the fire. The settlements are gradually eroding the little territory the Palestinian people have left. In 2010, 1,100 Palestinians were displaced after the demolition of 620 Palestinian homes. The Palestinian homes were demolished in order to build Zionist settler homes in their place. These aggressive Zionist settlers are then moved into, or next to, Palestinian areas. Many of the settlers harass and intimidate local Palestinian families. In some cases they have even shot at their Palestinian neighbours from their homes. One Palestinian college student recalls: ‘I tried to study at night for my Biology exam, but I was forced to stop, as every time I turned the light on I was shot at’.
The Zionist settlers are encouraged to move to Palestinian-occupied territories with government-funded loans and cheap housing. If the settlements are occupied for a period of 10 years or more, then the settlers do not have to pay back the loans at all. The engine that drives the persecution of the Palestinians is, without a shadow of a doubt, the Israeli government. Only 10% of the West Bank is populated by Zionist settlers, yet they enjoy superior privileges to the native Palestinian people. Palestinians are treated as third class citizens in their own country. The bottom line is that the Israeli government wants the Palestinians out. Any Palestinian family that wants a normal life – a future for their children, to have peace, security and freedom… well, they better move, because they won’t find it there.
On top of this, Palestinians are often arbitrarily arrested, tortured, detained without trial and unable to express themselves freely. Palestinian activists in the West Bank who mounted protests against the wall and the presence of illegal Israeli settlements continue to face arrest and trial before Israeli military courts.
Operation ‘Cast Lead’ took place in 2008/2009. During this operation, Israel invaded Gaza with the stated goal of stopping incoming rocket fire from Gaza. In 2009, a United Nations report, called the Goldstone Report was published, condemning the use of rocket fire by the Palestinians. It also heavily criticised the tactics and disproportionate use of force by the Israelis. Among the authors of the report was Colonel Desmond Travers, a former officer in the Irish Armed Forces and member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations. I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Colonel Travers last year when he spoke at UCC. Colonel Travers left no doubt in my mind that the Israeli actions were indeed human rights violations and that the intentional targeting of civilians by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was a form of punishment for rocket attacks. The report itself highlights many violations by the IDF, including the use of white phosphorous, a horrific and deadly killer, in built up civilian areas. The use of white phosphorous in civilian areas is in violation of International Law. Moreove,r the use of white phosphorous in the targeting of two hospitals and a UN aid convey is simply sickening.
The report also found that the IDF were guilty of using Palestinians as human shields in the conflict. There were many cases of human shields being used by the IDF, but a particularly highly documented case was that of two IDF soldiers who were found guilty of reckless endangerment after using an 11 year-old boy as a human shield in an offensive.
Operation Cast Lead lasted 22 days, and during this time over 1,400 Palestinians and 13 IDF (the majority of IDF were hit by friendly fire) were killed. To be absolutely clear on this point: the vast majority of the Palestinian dead were civilians, and many of them children. The Goldstone Report states, in no uncertain terms, that the assault on Gaza by the IDF was designed to ‘humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability’.
If this article seems one sided, it is because it is one sided – because this conflict is one sided. An occupation by a hostile force is always one sided. When you have a civilian population which is constantly subjected to the violations and humiliations of an occupying military force, there are going to be frustrated groups who are going to take action. I do not support these groups, but I can understand what has caused them. I also understand that they account for a very small percentage of the Palestinian population and I know that they are a convenient excuse for the Israeli government to cull the population of Gaza whenever it pleases. Simply put, the actions taken against the Palestinian people by the Israeli government have ensured the creation of these militant groups. I have sympathy for the loss of innocent life on both sides of this conflict, but there is one aggressor here, and they have been the agitator of this conflict since 1948.
In November of last year, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to recognize Palestine as a State. The Israeli government’s response to this was to seize US $120 million in Palestinian tax revenue. Furthermore, the day after the recognition of Palestinian statehood, the Israeli government approved and began the construction of 3,000 Israeli homes in the Palestinian occupied West Bank. Such is the measure of the Israeli governments resolve. How does one broker a lasting peace when simple recognition by the rest of the world results in such aggressive action?
Finally, this article was written in response to a previous article, ‘Another Perspective’by Mr Barry Williams, which was printed in January’s issue of Motley. I had intended on picking that article apart, but, to be perfectly honest, the article is so inaccurate that there was little point. I have decided to lay out the true facts of the situation as per reputable sources. Mr Williams is entitled to his opinion, but he is not entitled to write dangerously inaccurate material that belittles the plight of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians who are struggling for survival.