Condemning the Gaza atrocity

Israel has no right to bombard Gaza and kill civilians on the pretext of revenge against the murder of three Israeli boys by private individuals.  Otherwise one has to accept that Palestinians have a right to launch missles on Israel for the killing of a Palestiian boy who was brutally burned.  The attack on Gaza is simply  a unilateral breach of international law. There are no half ways. Israel must stop bombing unconditionally. 

Expecting Palestinians to accept conditions, when they practically live in a concentration camp, simply perpetuates the historical injustice.

Moreover there can be no peace before Israel withdraws back to its 1967 borders, dismantle all settlements in the West Bank and accepts to right of return of Palestinian refugees. As long as Israel continues to defy international law, the Palestinians have a right to resist.

Moreover as long as Israel defines itself as a Jewish state imposed or transplanted on the Middle East rather than as a pluralist democracy rooted in the Middle East, it will face rejection.

This is most unfortunate.  For the ideal solution to the problem is a one-state solution where Christian Arabs, Muslim Arabs, orthodox Jews and secular Jews live together free from the insecurities created by an apartheid state.

For while Jews who migrated to Israel have a right to stay and live in safety, the imposition of borders between the original inhabitants and the new arrivals perpetuate the injustice of the nakba of 1948, when vibrant multi ethnic towns were ethnically cleansed. As journalist Robert Fisk observes the inhabitants of Israeli towns currently under attack by rockets from Gaza where once Palestinan towns.

“The Israelis of Sederot are coming under rocket fire from the Palestinians of Gaza and now the Palestinians are getting their comeuppance. Sure. But wait, how come all those Palestinians – all 1.5 million – are crammed into Gaza in the first place? Well, their families once lived, didn’t they, in what is now called Israel? And got chucked out – or fled for their lives – when the Israeli state was created”.

Yet I much fear that accumulated fears and hatred make such a solution impossible. My fear is that there is not much of an alternative to this except the unilateral withdrawal from Israel from all territory occupied in 1967. 

It is inconceivable for Palestinians to accept half measures through which their infant state would be composed of fragmented territories, policed by Isreal, peace will remain elusive and rejectionists will thrive on both sides.

I write this blog with sadness.

If there is one particular culture I admire, it is the Jewish one. But I make a clear distinction between Israel, Zionism and Jewish identity.

I was always fascinated by how a cultural minority survived centuries of diasporas, expulsions, pogroms and finally genocide. 

This is why am so irritated when history is invoked to justify Israeli aggression and the European Union’s relative silence and lack of unequivocal condemnation of Israel.  Respect for the suffering of Jews through history should make us more, not less, sensitive to the plight of Palestinians. 

The European Union has a historical responsibility as it includes colonial powers like the UK as well as nations with a history of persecution against Jewish minorities in their midst. 

The current scenario exposes the EU’s impotent foreign policy and the double standards applied to different scenarios. Unfortunately the discovery of vast gas deposits in the sea between Cyprus and Israel raises the suspicion of geo political motivtions behind this silence.

Moreover the EU has failed the Arab Spring, by not offering any economic prospective to nascent Arab democracies, thus paving the way for the restoration of  a brutal dictatorship in Egypt after a coup against a democratically elected government.

But let us not forget that Malta is also in the European Union.  We have a voice which frankly is not being used.

Unlike Germany we are not crippled by our history. Moreover we can bank on a consensual tradition of cross party support for the Palestinian cause. 

Towering figures like Dom Mintoff and Guido De Marco were unequivocal in their support for an independent Palestinian state.  Moreover support for Palestine is an intrinsic part of our Euro-Mediterranean identity advocated by foreign Minister George Vella. As recently as 2001 both Alfred Sant and Eddie Fenech Adami  ound no difficulty wearing the kefiya in a public demonstration of support for Palestine. 

Unfortunately our government’s proclamations on this issue has so far been too equidistant. Condemning the “violence” but not the perpetrator of the violence smacks of subservience to Israel in the wake of a recent visit to Israel where the Prime Minister discussed economic cooperation with Netanyahu’s government during a visit in October. Moreover in this scenario the government is obliged to renege on any support for Israel’s bid for a seat on the UN security council and on any other international body.

This is why I augur that all Maltese who cherish our country’s long standing support for the Palestinian cause should join the solidarity march next Thursday at City Gate at 5.30 pm.