Truce or No Truce?

Palestine has been illegally occupied by Israel ever since the 1967 six- day war when the latter captured the territories of Gaza and the West Bank from former occupiers : Egypt and Jordan. Ever since that date, Palestine has been refered to as the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).

In this article, we will try so hardly not to put the blame on anyone for what happened in the recent events that took place on November, 2012 between Gaza and Israel. A part of this article will be written in memory of the martyrs, about whom Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Aylon said, « that most of the people that were hit in Gaza deserved it as they were just armed terrorists “.

His statement was in a complete contrast with the facts and figures provided by the Palestinian Center of Human Rights stating that up to the 2Oth of November, 91 of the 136 Palestinians killed were civilians (including 28 children) and 922 of the 941 wounded were civilians (including 258 children).

In Memory of the “armed terrorists"

I would like to list some of the names of the martyrs who died during the recent events, provided by the Palestinian Blogger Shahd Abusalama. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet some of the “armed terrorists”:

Ahmad Al-Ja’bary, 52 years old; Rinan Arafat, 7 years old; Walid Al-Abalda, 2 years old; Hanin Tafesh, 10 months old; Gumana Salamah Abu Sufyan, 1 year old; Tasneem Zuheir Al-Nahhal, 13 years old; Eyad Abu Khusa, 18 months old; Nawal Abdelaal, 52 years old; Tahani Al-Dalou, 50 years old; Ameina Matar Al-Mzanner, 83 years old; Rama Al-Shandi, 1 year old; Suhaib Fo’ad Hjazi, 2 years old…

Rumor Has it!

Rumour has it that the bloody reaction undertaken by Israel was simply an attempt to restore the fear of the Arab Muslim world of it. That way Benjamin Netanyahu would gain more popularity among the Israeli voters by the time he makes it to the upcoming elections of January 2013. Nevertheless, as I have already said, they are just rumors, and I guess that the real reasons laying behind the actions committed by Israel will always be buried under  hills of lies and pretense.

Where does America stand in all of this?

Israelis have been playing a very important role in funding US campaigns and crafting US law making policy.  What does the US government do in return? It gives it 3 billion dollars in military aid on an annual basis, while the US Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 states that “…no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Does this mean that the US government is violating one of its Acts or does it mean that it doesn't consider Israel as a country who is engaged “ in a consistent pattern of gross violations…”?

I would rather leave this question unanswered.

And then, US President Barrack Obama said, as a response for the Israeli actions, that Israel had “every right to defend itself”. In this case, I would like to adopt Noam Chomsky’s words when he said “When Israelis in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend themselves, they are defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to defend itself against the population they are crushing. You can't defend yourself when you're militarily occupying someone else's land. That's not defense. Call it what you like, it's not defense."

Unity between Fatah and Hamas?

On the 22^nd of November, leaders of Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian factions gathered to celebrate the end of the 8- day war on Gaza. This picture gave such hope, not only to the Palestinians but also to many Arabs and Muslims around the world, of a united Palestine.

The Sovereign State of Palestine:

According to the Reuters, the United Nations General Assembly announces that 138 countries voted for the Palestinian bid to recognize it as a Sovereign State, while 9 countries were against and 41 countries abstained. We congratulate the Palestinian people; however, is the Sovereign State of Palestine just Gaza and the West Bank? Or did we just forget the Palestinian borders on the original map? Should Palestinians take the new status or leave it and ask for more? I would leave those questions unanswered too.

            

Written by:  Nada Mrabet