The Palestinian people have the right to defend their lives from Israeli aggression, they have the right to resist apartheid and we have the right to stand by them as they do. When did solidarity become such an awful thing?
by Jacob Lynagh
Palestine is becoming harder to defend. Not because of the rocket fire, not because of the recent celebrations when an Israeli soldier was reportedly captured by Hamas, but because defending Palestine has become an intricate dance.
To defend the people of the Gaza Strip, you must choose your words very carefully. You must refrain from condemning Israel too harshly, you must skirt around some of the most pressing issues of the conflict and most importantly, you must not, under any circumstances, defend the actions of the Palestinian resistance fighters.
“Israel is a defensive state, surrounded by aggressors who wish to see their very existence crushed. They live in fear of the daily rocket attacks that they must endure.”
You may have heard something similar to that before – it is a common line among Western media.
The truth paints a very different picture.
Israel has an outstanding military; it has been decades since any of their neighbours have posed any sort of threat to them. Israel is not just a power in the Middle East, Israel is the power of the Middle East – as well as the only nuclear power of the region. It is Israel’s neighbours who live in fear.
The Palestinian territories are surrounded by an aggressor who wish to see their very existence crushed. Israel has fenced them in, controlling all of the borders and slowly taking over what is left of the Palestinian homeland with their settlements.
Palestinians constantly live in fear of brutal and relentless attacks from the sky, sea and land – whenever it is of political value to the Israeli government. The armed Palestinian resistance is not terrorism; it is not aggressive; it is the only defence force the Palestinian people have.
As Israel’s economy steadily grows – their cities built high and their parks green and luscious – let us run the numbers regarding Gaza. According to the United Nations, the Gaza strip will be uninhabitable by 2020. Israeli blockades have caused the unemployment rate in Gaza to rise to 40 percent; 13 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition; and 19 percent of children have anaemia. For every one Israeli killed, seven Palestinians are killed.
One Palestinian child has been killed by Israel every three days for the past thirteen years.
Palestinian civilians do not only have to run from the missiles and bombs, but from shells containing poisonous gas and white phosphorous, an illegal chemical weapon that burns its victims alive.
There are four major armed brigades currently operating in defense of the Palestinian territories; each brigade represents a specific political movement with a much broader scope - al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas), al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (Fatah), Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades (PFLP) and the al-Quds Brigades (Palestinian Islamic Jihad). All four brigades, or their political counterparts, are designated terrorist organizations in the US and Australia. The only forces defending the people of Palestine are internationally-designated terrorist organisations – didn’t I say that they had become hard to defend?
Hamas, Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are not just resistance groups, they make up 122 of the 132 seats of the Palestinian Legislative Council. They are, for all intents and purposes, a government. They build roads, schools and hospitals. They maintain mosques, social services and free healthcare. They are the only people maintaining and governing Palestine as they struggle with the limited resources that come with living under apartheid. Yes, they each have armed wings, but any government under constant attack should be allowed to maintain a defence force.
Hamas and the other resistance movements face regular criticism in the Western press, but their actions are not covered fairly or with any manner of balance. In a scathing and bitter piece in The Sydney Morning Herald, Sharyn Mittelman wrote, “Also rejected by Hamas was a July 15 ceasefire proposal by Egypt…The rejection revealed Hamas’ true colours and was widely condemned internationally”. Mittelman, who blamed Hamas for “provoking” Israel to kill 650 Palestinians (at the time of writing), made no attempt to present a balanced report.
(Ed’s note – It should be noted that, as with this piece, Mittleman’s piece was also Op Ed.)
Not a word was said about the 10-year truce offered by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, instantly rejected by Israel. The truce hinged on ten conditions, the only military one requiring the Israeli Defense Force to withdraw their tanks from Gaza. The other nine were backed by economic motivation; including allowing a UN-controlled airport in Gaza, expanding Gaza’s fishing zones and allowing the borders of the Gaza Strip to be opened and maintained by the United Nations.
When a young Palestinian boy was kidnapped, beaten and burned to death, the frequency of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into the desert of Israel rose. The rockets did not kill anybody, they did not hit houses, they did not even hit towns. They were all either shot down, or fell short of their mark. See, the resistance fighters know that their methods are ineffective: they are David to Israel’s Goliath. Nonetheless, it is a show of resistance – it is a symbolic way of saying that they will not be silenced. It is the only resistance that they know, and the only way that they can resist.
Using rocket fire from Gaza as a counterattack to make Israel’s outrageous attacks on liberty and humanity seem somewhat less horrendous is an ignorant defence that flies in the face of human decency.
It has surely become an intricate dance to defend Palestine. When one does mount a defense for the Palestinians, they must make sure that they have not sided with any of the resistance brigades, they must not praise the rocket attacks, they must not praise Hamas – for then they would be praising terrorists. But I do not think that is even remotely fair.
People cheer from the sidelines as Israeli forces bomb schools and hospitals, and the talking heads on television pledge allegiance to Israel and every action they take.
I stand with the Palestinian resistance, for the defence of the Palestinian people.
And truthfully, I stand by the heavily condemned words of British MP David Ward, who recently Tweeted
Retweet to your followers?
David Ward @DavidWardMP
The big question is – if I lived in #Gaza would I fire a rocket? – probably yes
The Palestinian people have the right to defend their lives from Israeli aggression, they have the right to resist apartheid and we have the right to stand by them as they do.
When did solidarity become such an awful thing?
Jacob Lynagh is an Adelaide-based freelance journalist who closely follows the political and social issues of the Pacific region and Middle East, as well as the rise and fall of nationalist and anti-fascist movements. He is a Grateful Dead fan, writes about classic Rock whenever possible and wishes the sixties never ended.
