Part IV of a Feature Analysis on Operation Protective Edge.

by Tascha Shahriari-Parsa and Alon Lapid

Ongoing Protests in Canada

In response to all of the injustice, emergency demonstrations have erupted across Canada, declaring their support for Palestine and calling for an end to Israeli war crimes.

Unfortunately, most Canadian media agencies have chosen not to report on these protests. In Vancouver, 400 people demonstrated right outside of the CBC building, calling an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and even chanting “CBC, now’s the time, tell the truth about Palestine”, but CBC still failed to report on it. At the same time, the stories have been filled with an attempt to equate the terror thrusted against Gaza with the apparent “suffering” of Israelis.

Israel’s Propaganda Hegemony

As if the Israeli government perpetrating injustice after injustice against the Palestinian people was not enough, many Jews, both in Israel and abroad have called for even harsher treatment of Gaza. Some of these groups, such as a student union in Herzliya, have committed themselves to the spreading of disinformation on social media sites. According to them, Israel has a “right to defend itself” from a few generally non-lethal rockets, while Palestinians whose houses are being demolished, whose water is insecure, and whose trade is blockaded are somehow in a position to threaten Israel.

Although some Israeli leftists criticize Israel’s campaign of destruction against Gaza, when they do so they are met by right-wing fascists who beat them , as has occurred at one fateful protest in Tel-Aviv. The Israeli police force is complicit in these beatings, monitoring the protesters (who are peaceful), but never arresting the fascists (who are not). The atmosphere of racism and jingoism that pervades Israeli society is especially manifest when a popular rapper such as Yoav Eliasi can be found in the crowd of right-wingers who are assaulting protesters in Tel-Aviv.

Perhaps most absurd is Israel’s election to the leadership of the UN Committee on Decolonization . No, this is not a joke. In late June, Israel became the Vice President of this UN Committee, giving it a say over matters related to Palestine and Palestinian refugees . The Saudi UN delegate called it a sham, stating that “The election is the moral equivalent of placing the apartheid South Africa regime in charge of a committee to end racism.” Unfortunately, the same grounds that permitted Israel’s election committee — undoubtedly a result of the menacing power of a pair of renowned imperialist teammates, the US and Israel — bolster the erroneous attitude pervasive in much of the world’s media that Israel, apparently a “liberal democratic parliamentary state”, represents not only the interests of Jews, but of Arabs existing in its territories as well.

Notwithstanding the facts that no Arab-led party has ever been a part of an Israeli coalition and only 10% of the Knesset (Israeli legislature) is comprised of Arabs, apologists for Israel claim that its legislative body fairly represents Arab interests. It should come to no surprise to those well-informed of the systemic racism that the state of Israel perpetrates against Palestinians that the supposedly “centrist” Yesh Atid MK silenced an Arab MK . Ahmad Tibi, who had just arrived back in Israel after visiting the family of a murdered Palestinian boy, was cut-off partway through his speech and told that he must also address the three Jewish teens murdered in Israel even though he did, in fact, mention them . Even in its legislative body — which pretends to represent all citizens of Israel, be they Jewish or Arab — a sort of unacknowledged equivalence occurs. For every 1 Jew dead, there is justification for the death of at least 100 Palestinians. Only with this racist justification can a supposedly moderate member call for the recognition of 3 Israelis dead over the countless dead in Gaza.

It’s important to recognize, however, that the absurd racism that we witness on the part of Israel is not racism-for-the-sake-of-racism. Racism provides the justification—the question is, justification for what ?

Opposing the Rhetoric of the Oppressor, Supporting the Oppressed

To condemn the rockets fired into Israel by Palestinians from Gaza is to condemn justified resistance against a brutal colonial occupier; it’s as outrageous as condemning France for defending itself against Nazi Germany or condemning the struggle of indigenous people on Turtle Island.

To equate Palestinian resistance with Israeli aggression is to equate the oppressed with the oppressor. To not take the side of the Palestinian people, even under the deceptive veil of neutrality, is to take the side of the oppressor, instead of holding Israel accountable for its occupation of Palestine, its capital-driven war crimes, and the sheer terror that it has afflicted upon the Palestinian people day and night.

If Toronto was bombed 10 days in a row by a foreign power, resulting in hundreds of deaths, what would happen? Even when the 9/11 attacks occurred, the US used that as justification to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and kill hundreds of thousands of people, hundreds of times more than the number of people who died on 9/11. Yet Palestinians are reprimanded for firing a few small rockets into Israel as an act of resistance?

While Palestine must receive the full support of people around the world in its struggle for national liberation, Israel must be unequivocally condemned for its indefensible war crimes and occupation of Palestine. It is clear that Israel’s Operation Protective Edge is a misnomer, as it should be renamed to something along the lines of Operation Capital-driven Genocide . As mentioned in our first Basics News article on Operation Protective Edge , Israel’s brutality will continue and Palestine will never be free “ until the Zionist apparatus of colonialism is dismantled once and for all.”

“Israel’s Motive of Natural Gas Appropriation,” Part V of this five-part series on Palestine and Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ is available here.

Comments

comments