By Shahid Jamal
The world appears to be turning a blind eye to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian population is enduring relentless dehumanization at the hands of Israeli forces. In the name of so-called justified retaliation, civilians in Gaza are falling victim to the lethal military actions. The ongoing mass expulsion of Palestinians is escalating, accompanied by the recent announcement of a total siege on Gaza by the Israeli defence minister.
With over two million inhabitants, nearly half of whom are under eighteen, Gaza stands as a densely populated area bearing the brunt of an increasingly dire situation. The humanitarian plight in Palestine is deteriorating rapidly, as the population grapples with unrelenting bombardments, the destruction of homes, and the deliberate targeting of medical facilities.
The narrative propagated by the Zionist media suggests that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a direct result of Hamas’s attack on Israel, ignoring the fact that the people in Gaza have been enduring this crisis for decades, long before the Hamas came into being. While the use of violence by Hamas cannot be condoned, it is equally imperative to acknowledge that Hamas is a product of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The perceived act of retaliation appears to be an overt strategy to forcibly relocate the inhabitants of Gaza. This pattern of violence has tragically affected innocent children and peace-seeking civilians in an inhumane manner. This recurring pattern of aggression by Israel, observed since 1948, has a history of displacing Palestinians from their homeland. According to the most precise calculation yet made, approximately 780000 Arab Palestinians were dispossessed and displaced in 1948 in order to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. As the Palestinians sought refuge in Beirut, Lebanon, they bore the brunt of the severe consequences of Israel’s actions, culminating in the tragic devastation of the city during the events of 1982. This indicates that the Israeli agenda extends beyond mere territorial acquisition; it encompasses a ruthless pursuit of ethnic cleansing, seeking not just land, but the elimination of the Palestinian people. Mahmoud Darwish, a celebrated Palestinian poet who personally endured the struggles of exile, poignantly depicted this situation in one of his letters, “This permanent war waged by Israel against us is not a war to defend its existence, it is a war over our existence.”
In his book The Question of Palestine, Edward Said references a statement by Israeli General Moshe Dayan, emphasizing the displacement of Palestinians during the events of 1948. Moshe Dayan states,
We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is a Jewish state here. In considerable areas of the country (the total area was about 6 percent) we bought the lands from the Arabs. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist; not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. There is not one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.
Dayn’s statement highlights the systematic erasure of Palestinian history and culture, symbolized by the physical displacement of communities and the deliberate omission of their existence from public consciousness.
Israel’s trajectory is marked by a persistent pattern of violence. It is the largest distributor of weapons in the world. It is widely known that its economic prosperity is mainly sustained by the perpetual fear of war it exports globally. While ideally Israeli authorities should face prosecution for their decades-long brutal military campaigns in Palestine, the unconditional support of the United States and certain European Nations presents a stark paradox. This paradox reveals a historical pattern where those deemed as war criminals are paradoxically celebrated as heroes.
I fail to understand how a community that endured the horrors of the Holocaust now finds itself engaged in actions reminiscent of the persecution it once suffered, and that too towards the very communities that once offered it refuge. From the very outset, Israel has been determined to wipe out the Palestinian identity completely, leading to long-term resistance from the Palestinian community. However, this very act of defiance has led the world to label them as terrorists. They are fighting for their existence, identity, and homeland and through their unwavering resistance, they seek to communicate to the world that perhaps they may not exist for them, but they unequivocally exist.
I believe that for Jews to understand what happened during the Holocaust at Auschwitz, they do not need to visit the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum. They simply need to witness the ongoing brutality by their Zionist state in Gaza. While the perpetrators of the violence may seem different in Auschwitz and Gaza, the purpose of the violence appears to be the same: ethnic cleansing (then the targets were the Jews, now the target is the Palestinian Arabs).
In 1950, Israel passed a law of return which allows every Jewish person to immigrate to Israel and automatically become a citizen of the state. But the same law denied entry to Israel to the Arab Palestinians born in that territory. These Palestinians became infiltrators in their homeland. In 1996, during an interview with Helit Yeshurun, an Israeli poet and literary critic, Mahmoud Darwish emphasized the untold narrative of the infiltrators, suggesting that “the story of the infiltrators has yet to be written. A Palestinian author still needs to write this story.” Recounting his own experiences, he states that at the time of the establishment of the Jewish state, when they did a census, “we were refugees in Lebanon. When we returned two years later, we entered as infiltrators. Every time the police came, we hid. Whenever the superintendent would come to the school, the teachers would hide me because I was not legal. And you can imagine what an impact that can have on a seven-year-old boy. The kind of psychological complexes and animosity that exist between a regime and childhood.”
In the same interview he has also narrated his own childhood miseries. He says, “there are no essential differences between the story of my childhood and the story of my homeland. The rupture that occurred in my personal life also befell my homeland. Childhood was taken from me at the same time as my home. There is a parallelism and a unity in the tragic aspect of the matter. In 1948, when this great rupture of ours took place, I jumped from the bed of childhood onto the path of exile.”
Edward Said, a scholar and literary critic, was born into a Christian family in Palestine and experienced exile during the Nakba, a term that refers to the huge displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in 1948. His story too portrays the common theme of displacement. When Edward Said was born in 1935, Israel had not yet come into existence. Later, as he grew up and sought to visit his homeland, i.e., Palestine, he was informed that Palestine no longer existed. The stories of Mahmoud Darwish and Edward Said became known to us as they could tell their stories to the world but millions of people who became the victims of Nakba were unable to articulate their own sufferings and narratives, leaving their voices unheard by the broader global community. In a poignant plea within one of his poems, Mahmoud Darwish implores: “As you express yourself in metaphor, think of others (those who have lost the right to speak).” Here, perhaps Darwish is remembering his own people who lost their voice during the Nakba.
As I write this, Gaza is currently undergoing intense bombardment, and a recent report from the Gaza Health Ministry states that an explosion at a hospital has claimed the lives of at least five hundred people. Who were these people? What was their crime? Why have they been targeted? The questions are many, but the answer is only one: they all share the same identity, they were the Palestinian Arabs. Carrying this identity is enough reason to be counted as an enemy of Israel and hence they have been killed.
In the meantime, the role of the UN remains dubious. Although it is involved in relief work in Gaza, it is not the only duty the UN is expected to perform. In my analysis, the UN invariably prefers to intervene only in post-war times, as if rehabilitation were its primary duty. The UN has consistently failed to meet the expectations of the world’s oppressed when they have sought its assistance. Who will make the UN understand that world peace cannot be ensured merely by distributing bread and medicine in war-torn areas during wartime? As an international body, its role is far more extensive; it is expected to minimize conflicts that lead to warlike situations between countries and hold war criminals accountable, but it is apprehensive because, prior to holding war criminals accountable, the UN needs to introspect and consider whether it has fulfilled its duties judiciously. In my opinion, the integrity of the UN has always remained questionable. The war crime data corroborates it.
The world needs to understand that this is not a two-way occupation; it is unequivocally a one-sided occupation. Israel has taken control of the land, and the Palestinian resistance is merely a response to this occupation. To cease the resistance, Israel must first put an end to the occupation. It really is as simple as that, but complicating this reality serves the broader narrative of Israel, which is precisely why it persists in doing so.
Deescalating the conflict temporarily is not the solution; this conflict demands a permanent resolution. The two-state solution has long been proposed as the best hope for peace, suggesting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside the existing state of Israel, granting both peoples their own territories. However, as I mentioned earlier, the shattering of the city of Beirut in 1982, when displaced Palestinians took refuge there, exemplifies how the two-state solution might not entirely solve the conflict. Israel, in this case, will not become complacent even if it is given the entire Palestinian region, as its aspirations extend beyond territorial expansion, aiming to erase the Palestinian Arabs’ identity. It is a sheer madness, and the permanent solution of the conflict is only possible if Israel agrees to stop this madness.
It is high time that people worldwide view the Israel-Palestine conflict through an objective lens, setting aside the propagandist narratives perpetuated by Zionist media outlets worldwide. Distinguishing between the occupier and the occupied should not be a challenging task for anyone observing the situation.
Bio:
Shahid Jamal is a Research Scholar at the Department of Educational Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
***
Like Cafe Dissensus on Facebook. Follow Cafe Dissensus on Twitter.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday is the blog of Cafe Dissensus magazine, born in New York City and currently based in India. All materials on the site are protected under Creative Commons License.
***
Read the latest issue of Cafe Dissensus Magazine, “(Re)storying Indian Handloom Saree Culture”, edited by Anindita Chatterjee, Durgapur Govt. College, West Bengal, India.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday 