The Agony of Palestine
This essay was published in February 2009, and is listed as one of Hardnews' all-time most read articles: Israel insists on the right to deny statehood to the Palestinians, control its borders, seize its (remaining) territories, impose blockades at will, build a security wall on Palestinian land, control its water resources, impose collective punishments such as destruction of olive groves and homes, and refuse to recognise its own (Israel's) borders in preparation for further expansion. All that Israel seems to want of the Palestinian population displaced by it is to perform cheap labour or better still, to disappear. We do not hear the mainstream media or western politicians ask whether the Palestinians too have a right to defend themselves or whether they must passively accept forced dispossession, encroachment and perpetual humiliation. Maybe they should commit collective suicide?
Contending Fundamentalisms: Arab states have cynically exploited the Palestinians for decades. Most of these states have evolved as dictatorial or military systems, in some cases with overt American support. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia (with the acquiescence of the US) financed the infiltration of the resistance by fundamentalist organisations like the Taliban. It is true that Hamas has an extremist ideology that refuses to recognise Israel or to renounce violence. However, it also developed social roots against the backdrop of a corrupt Palestinian Authority. It was elected to run the Gaza administration, after initial encouragement by Israel itself, which was seeking to divide the Palestinian resistance.
It is ironic that Israel, a State founded on Biblical claims and that rejects the very idea of a secular, non-denominational Constitution, should object to the emergence of religious fanaticism among the people it violently displaced. It is often said that Israel is a democracy in a sea of backwardness. A democracy is known not only for institutions such as free elections, but also in terms of whom it defines as the ‘demos', or people. The South African apartheid regime also called itself a democracy. But this ‘democracy' was based upon exclusionist principles... it is not surprising that the supporters of the fascist doctrine of Hindu Rashtra have been Israel's most fervent Indian admirers. The ideal of a Jewish State at war with Muslims resonates with their aspiration for a Hindu State that will settle its ‘minority problem' with an iron hand. Unfortunately, these Nazi fantasies are likely to produce not a ‘final solution', but a permanent state of war and hostility.
The crisis in Gaza is not a ‘Muslim' concern. Sadly, this is how the mainstream Indian media insists on seeing it. The Palestine issue is an outcome of colonial occupation and settlement. Its origins are complex, yet Gandhi and India's national leadership were clear that the Zionist project was misconceived and essentially colonial. Gandhi set forth his views on the matter in his Harijan editorial on November 11, 1938, in the context of pressure on him from Zionist quarters. He began by saying that his sympathies were with the Jews, who had been subjected to inhuman treatment and persecution for a long time. "But", Gandhi asserted, "my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and in the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after their return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?"..
Christianity, Nazism and Anti-Semitism: The origins of the never-ending crisis in West Asia lie in the long history of Christian anti-Semitism. For centuries, the Catholic Church and its offshoots called for the punishment of Jews for their mythical role in the murder of Jesus Christ. The myth originated in Biblical gospels, and was perpetuated by Christianity's greatest intellects, including Saint Paul, Saint Aquinas, Martin Luther and Calvin, not to mention the Papacy..
Read more: http://archives.hardnewsmedia.com/2009/02/2566
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