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The Palestinian Nakba: Gaza and Warsaw Ghetto Parallels
by Michael R. Burch, an editor and publisher of Holocaust and Nakba poetry
When the Nazis herded Jews into the Warsaw Ghetto, slammed the gates shut and
treated multitudes of innocents like pariahs, that was undoubtedly a crime against humanity. When
the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto had an uprising and began attacking and killing
their Nazi oppressors, they were not considered criminals or terrorists, but
heroes (except, of course, by the Nazis). But when some Gazans rise up
against their Jewish oppressors, they are called "terrorists." Is that fair?
No, I don't think it's fair, because the situations of the Jews of the Warsaw
Ghetto and the Palestinians of the walled ghetto of Gaza are very similar.
Why did the Jews end up in the Warsaw Ghetto? Because the Nazis rigged the laws
and courts of Germany to leave the Jews defenseless. Once German courts no
longer protected Jews from seizure of their homes, land and other property, they
were fair game and easy prey. Once their homes, land and property had been
stolen, they were unable to provide for themselves, so the Germans sent them to
walled ghettos and concentration camps. This was basically a system of ethnic
cleansing and apartheid. First the land was "purified" racially, then apartheid
walls kept the Jews away from the eyes of polite German society.
What happened to the Palestinians starting in 1948, the year of the Nakba
("Catastrophe") was eerily similar. First Israel ethnically cleansed Palestine
of around 700,000 Palestinians. Their land was stolen and their houses and
villages were destroyed, leaving them nothing to return to. This left the
Palestinians homeless, destitute, and unable to provide for themselves. Many
ended up in refugee camps, just as many Jews ended up in concentration camps.
Many other Palestinians ended up in Gaza, which today is a walled ghetto housing
1.5 million people, the majority of them completely innocent women and children
unconvicted of any crime except having been "born wrong" in the eyes of the
government of Israel.
A fundamental question is whether the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto should have
submitted to the iron rule of the Nazis. The answer is clearly "no" because the
"laws" of the Nazis were racist and unjust. It is not a "crime" to break an
illegal law. According to the American Declaration of Independence, any human
being who is denied equal rights, freedom, justice and representative government
has the right and duty to resist, using force as necessary to secure his/her
self-evident rights.
But because the laws established by Israel for the people of Gaza are also
racist and unjust, and therefore illegal, it is not a crime for the Gazans to
resist using force. Here are just a few of the unjust impositions of Israel on
Gaza:
• An illegal naval blockade of Gaza, senselessly denying
such innocent things as children's crayons and coloring paper. Speaking about
the blockade, former US president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter
said, "Tragically, the international community largely ignores the cries for
help, while the citizens of Gaza are being treated more like animals than human
beings," during a speech given in Gaza. Carter also called Israel's actions an
"atrocity" and an "abomination."
• Killing peace activists who planned to break the illegal blockade, while they
were still in international waters
• On May 31, 2010, Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on the Situation of
Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, pronounced Israel in
egregious violation of international law: “Israel is guilty of shocking behavior
by using deadly weapons against unarmed civilians on ships that were situated in
the high seas where freedom of navigation exists, according to the law of the
seas.” Falk called for an investigation on the grounds that “It is essential
that those Israelis responsible for this lawless and murderous behavior,
including political leaders who issued the orders, be held criminally
accountable for their wrongful acts.” He characterized the Gaza blockade as “a
massive form of collective punishment” constituting “a crime against humanity,
as well as a gross violation of the prohibition on collective punishment in
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
• The Elders, a group which includes six Nobel peace prize winners — former UN
secretary general Kofi Annan, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, former
US president Jimmy Carter, detained Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, former
South African president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu — condemned
as “completely inexcusable” the deadly Israeli attack on the flotilla carrying
humanitarian aid for Gaza. The group urged the UN Security Council “to debate
the situation with a view to mandating action to end the closure of the Gaza
Strip.” The Elders also said, “This tragic incident should draw the world’s
attention to the terrible suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people, half of whom
are children under the age of 18.” Israel’s three-year blockade of Gaza was not
only “one of the world’s greatest human rights violations” and “illegal” under
international law, it was also “counterproductive” because it empowered
extremists in the Palestinian territory, they said.
• Home demolitions without due process of law
• The use of white phosphorus weapons in Operation Cast
Lead against the densest civilian population on earth
• The Israeli military has used Palestinian civilians as human shields according
to Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North
Africa Program
I believe the following excerpts from "Unjust and Illegal: The Israeli Attack on
Gaza" by Stephen R. Shalom, from Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and
Culture, vol. 8, no. 1, 2009 further and concisely illustrate the problems
presented by Israel wildly unjust treatment of Palestinians:
• The reports of statements from Israeli soldiers documenting their horrendous
war crimes have greatly discomforted those who engaged in cheerleading for the
brutal Israeli assault on Gaza [The confessions of Israeli soldiers can be
easily found online by doing a Google search for "Breaking the Silence"].
• Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories
is illegal and unjust and [thus] Israel cannot claim self-defense when
Palestinians struggle by legitimate means to end the occupation [just as the
Nazis could not claim "self defense" during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising].
• The proper Israeli response to such Palestinian
actions is not "self-defense," but full withdrawal from the occupied
territories.
• Even if it were the
case that the 1967 war [in which Gaza came under Israel's control] was wholly
defensive on Israel's part [Israel attacked Egypt preemptively], [still] this
could not justify continued rule over Palestinians. A people do not lose their
right to self-determination because the government of a neighboring state
[Egypt] goes to war [if the US went to war with Mexico, should that be used as a
pretext to steal force Canadians to submit to US
rule?].
• [After the 1967 war, which it initiated] Israel
immediately incorporated occupied East Jerusalem into Israel proper, announcing
that Jerusalem was its united and eternal capital. It then began to establish
settlements in the Occupied Territories in violation of the Geneva Conventions,
which prohibit a conquering power from settling its population on occupied
territory. The Israeli government legal adviser at the time, the distinguished
jurist Theodor Meron, privately warned that any settlements would be
illegal, but he was ignored. And the International Court of Justice has ruled --
in a portion of an opinion that had the unanimous support of all its judges,
including the one from the United States -- that all the settlements in the
occupied territories are illegal.
• Israel did withdraw its troops and settlements
from Gaza in 2005. Most international law experts deny that this has ended the
occupation of that territory. As John Dugard, the UN's special rapporteur on the
Occupied Palestinian Territories [at the time], noted in 2006: "Statements by
the Government of Israel that the withdrawal ended the occupation of Gaza are
grossly inaccurate ... Gaza remained under the effective control of Israel. This
control was manifested in a number of ways. Israel retained control of Gaza's
air space, sea space and external borders. Although a special arrangement was
made for the opening of the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, to be monitored by
European Union personnel, all other crossings remained largely closed ... The
actions of IDF [Israeli Defense Force] in respect of Gaza have clearly
demonstrated that modern technology allows an occupying Power to effectively
control a territory even without a military presence."
• On November 20, 2008, Human Rights Watch wrote to
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, stating, among other things, "Even though
Israel withdrew its permanent military forces and settlers in 2005, it remains
an occupying power in Gaza under international law because it continues to
exercise effective day-to-day control over key aspects of life in Gaza." [Israel
prohibits Gaza from trading by sea or air with other nations, bars people from
sailing or flying into or out of Gaza, overflies Gazan airspace with its
military jets and helicopters, patrols and blockades Gaza's coastal waters, etc.
Israel also controls Gaza's population registry and collects import duties on
any goods it allows into Gaza.]
• Operation Cast Lead was a massively
disproportionate assault on a imprisoned population. Even if Israel had just
cause to go to war, its conduct was morally and legally grotesque. But Israel
did not have just cause to go to war: the threat posed by Palestinians rockets
could have been nullified by ending the four-decade long occupation or even by
simply lifting the blockade of Gaza, a blockade that was in any event a morally
unacceptable form of collective punishment. Jimmy Carter was exactly right when
he called this "the unnecessary war." And an unnecessary war is necessarily an
unjust and illegal war.
But perhaps most importantly, Israel denies Gazans the right of
self-determination, and according to the American Declaration of Independence,
that gives Gazans the right and the duty to resist using all due force. Why
should only Americans and Jews be allowed to say, "Give me liberty or give me
death!"
What we can do? First, we can speak firmly for the
right of Palestinians to enjoy the same freedoms and privileges that we enjoy
ourselves. Second, we can educate help other people, especially Americans who may
still believe the prevailing fictions. (For instance, you could provide links to
my articles, if you think they have merit.) Third, if at any point you are persuaded
to try to end the current madness, I have developed a new peace initiative which
I welcome you to study. Perhaps you can be the person to help make it happen.
You can read the details here: The Burch-Elberry Peace
Initiative. The idea is mine; my friend the Egyptian peace activist
Zainab Elberry agreed to allow me to use her name alongside mine because she
thinks the idea has merit.
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