Opinion Editorials About International Affairs, June 2007
|
|
40 Years of the Israeli Oppression and Persecution of the Palestinian People
By Hassan El-Najjar
ccun.org, June 5, 2007
On June 5, 1967, in a war of aggression, the Israeli airplanes destroyed Arab air bases in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Israelis used French jets called, Mirage, provided to them by the French colonial government avenging itself against Arabs after its humiliating defeat on the hands of the Algerian resistance, in 1962. Israeli tanks and ground forces then proceeded to occupy the unprotected Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, the Palestinian territories of Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the Syrian Golan Heights.
Egypt took back its territory following its 1973 limited victory, which was followed by a peace treaty with Israel. Most of the Golan Heights are still under the Israeli occupation together with the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza (despite the Israeli occupation from Gaza in 2005, as the territory is still under the Israeli tight control from all directions).
What have sixty years of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza give the Israelis? They usurped Palestinian lands and natural resources but they have never enjoyed a moment of security. The have become a nation of oppressors and persecutors who are constantly afraid of their victims' revenge.
The world has been watching the Israeli sadists torturing the Palestinian people, enslaving them, killing them, injuring them, imprisoning them, starving them, destroying their property, stealing their lands, and demolishing their homes. The United Nations General Assembly kept reiterating the right of the Palestinian people for return, compensation, self-determination, and finally for a state of their own. However, no efforts were made by the UN to force the Israelis to withdraw from the Palestinian lands.
The US-led NATO countries have supported the Israeli occupation of Palestine through their support of the Zionist state and shielding it in the United Nations Security Council. One needs just to think of how many times the US used its veto power to protect Israel against attempts of other members of the Council to demand the Israeli implementation of the UN resolutions regarding the rights of the Palestinian people (particularly resolutions 181, 194, 242, and 338).
US politicians from both parties are still in denial about the Israeli influence over American foreign policy. Criticizing the Israeli oppression and persecution of the Palestinian people is still unheard of among Republican and Democratic leaders, with rare exceptions such as President Carter in his last book* and some courageous members of Congress like Senator Kucinich. Criticizing Israel is still a red line in the corporate media. Even in the academia, a few voices dared to criticize the Israelis and their supporters in the US, such as Chomsky in the past and Walt and Mearshiemer recently.**
The ruling American Power Elite are still in denial about the role of supporters of Israel, such as Wolfowitz, Pearle, and Feith, in dragging the US into the present conflict with the Arab and Muslim worlds. If Israel is taken out of the equation, the US as a nation state would have no enemies in the Middle East and around the world. The US invasion of Iraq destroyed an Arab state, which was considered by Israelis as threat to their regional hegemony. Even the so-called US-Iranian potential conflict has an Israeli dimension. The Israelis want to maintain their nuclear regional super-power status by denying Iran to counterbalance their hegemony. If the US puts the Israeli nuclear arsenal on the negotiation table, the Iranians will be more than willing to sign on a Middle Eastern region, free of nuclear weapons.
When a nation allows itself to invade and occupy another, it opens the door for oppression, persecution, enslavement, killing, injuring, torture, and despicable practices.
The Israeli occupation of Palestine and the other Arab territories is the root cause of all the conflicts in the Middle East, which dragged the US-led NATO into them.
For peace in the world,
End the Israeli occupation now.
End all other occupations now.
There are always peaceful ways to resolve international conflicts.
We need just to give them a chance.
Notes:
Jimmy Carter, "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid." (2006).
Walt, John and Mearshiemer, "The Israel Lobby" (2006).
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
||||||
