Israel and its apologists want you to believe that the issue between Palestinians and Israel is about the recent horrific events in Gaza when in fact it dates back to before 1948 when Zionist-terrorists manipulated, plotted and killed their way into the establishment of Israel at the expense of the native people of Palestine.
Zionist colonialists utilized lies such as “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people” and “we made the desert bloom.”
They set the stage for the implementation of a colonial agenda that was similar to other colonial agendas at that time: demonizing natives to justify their expulsion from their homes and horrific acts of violence that created a Palestinian Holocaust that has gone unchallenged and unchecked for the last 61 years.
The majority of the 1.5 million people of Gaza are the descendant of the Palestinians who were driven out from Askalan (Ashkelon), Beer al-Sabe’ (Beersheba), Yaffa (Jaffa) and other Palestinian communities.
Almost 75 percent of them are considered refugees living in eight refugee camps within a few miles of their original homes they were forced to leave in 1948.
Contrary to the myth that Israel ceded control of Gaza in 2005 when it withdrew its forces from the area, the “Gaza Disengagement” plan stated that, “Israel would hold sole control of Gaza airspace and will continue to carry out military activity in the waters of the Gaza Strip.”
Indeed, Israel has maintained total and sole control of Gaza by land, air and sea, just as it has since the 1967 occupation, prompting the Vatican recently to refer to it as the “largest concentration camp.”
In Israeli apologists’ views, Israel is incapable of doing anything wrong and blames everything on Palestinians including Palestinians’/Hamas’ sinister plan to score media points by making it easy for the Israeli Army to kill Palestinian children and women.
The reality of the situation in Gaza is that sadly, illegal weapons were used against civilians. Thirteen hundred Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died and 5300 injured, scores still being pulled from the destroyed buildings. Tens of thousands are homeless without food or water and the inhumane siege continues.
Terrorism will always be defined by the powerful.
In the 1940s, the British Mandatory authority in Palestine spoke of Jewish terrorists’ bombings, killings, lynchings and massacring. In fact, former Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhaq Shamir topped its “Wanted Terrorists” list.
For a just solution, Israeli apologists and Israelis should not cry anti-Semitism every time Israel atrocities are exposed, and join the billions around the world and shout that “never again” also applies to the Palestinian Holocaust.
They should demand the release of more than 11,000 Palestinians, Lebanese and others in Israeli dungeons, demand dismantling the illegal colonies on occupied Palestinian land and stand up for a just peace that provide the Israeli and Palestinian people including Palestinian refugees hope for a better future.
Perhaps that is when the world recognizes that such righteous people as the Jewish people cannot accept anymore Israel atrocities to continue in their name.
Nasar Z. Alsharif, Pharm. D., Ph.D.,
School of Pharmacy