[News] On Israel's Gilad Erdan - 'Terrorist' Rock and Faulty Logic

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220124-israels-hasbara-in-sheikh-jarrah-on-gilad-erdans-terrorist-rock-and-faulty-logic/>
Israel's
Hasbara in Sheikh Jarrah: On Gilad Erdan's 'Terrorist' Rock and Faulty Logic
Dr Ramzy Barou - January 25, 2022
------------------------------

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, is leading his
country's anti-Palestinian propaganda, this time engaging in pre-emptive
hasbara in anticipation of a Palestinian response to the ongoing evictions
in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

"Would you consider it a terror attack if a rock like this was thrown at
your car while driving with your children?" Erdan asked
<https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-693992> the United Nations
Security Council members, while holding the rock in his hands. "Would you,
at the very least, condemn these brutal terror attacks carried out against
Israeli civilians by Palestinians?"

This Israeli logic is quite typical, where oppressed Palestinians are
depicted to be the aggressor, and oppressive Israel – a racist apartheid
state by any standard – presents itself as a victim merely engaging in
defending its own citizens.

But Erdan's selective logic is, this time around, compelled by something
else. His UN charade is merely aimed at creating a distraction from the
ongoing horrific events transpiring in Sheikh Jarrah and throughout
occupied East Jerusalem. On Wednesday, January 19, the Palestinian Salhiya
family's home was demolished
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/israeli-police-evict-palestinian-family-from-sheikh-jarrah-home>
by Israel, rendering 15 people, mostly children, homeless.

A few days earlier, a heart-wrenching event took place on top of that very
site, when members of the Salhiya family threatened to set themselves
ablaze as they agonised over the imminent loss of their family home.

"We have nothing left for us in Jerusalem. This is ethnic cleansing. Today
me, tomorrow my neighbours. We'd rather die on our land with dignity than
surrender to them," Mahmoud Salhiya, the owner of the house said
<https://twitter.com/jennineak/status/1483279348740542469>, before he was
dissuaded by neighbours not to set himself on fire.

These tragic events are being watched closely, first by Palestinians and
also by people around the world. If the momentum of Israeli destruction
continues, chances are we could witness another popular uprising. Erdan's
spectacle at the UN is a desperate act of propaganda to sway members of the
international community from criticising Israel.

*From fighting BDS to fighting delegitimisation: Israel's Ministry of
Strategic Affairs code for battling accountability*
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200815-from-fighting-bds-to-fighting-delegitimisation-israels-ministry-of-strategic-affairs-code-for-battling-accountability/>

But Israel is failing at making a case for itself, similar to its failure
to defend its horrific violence
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/10/4/october-2000-vs-may-2021-how-palestinians-defied-fragmentation>
against Palestinians throughout occupied Palestine in May 2021. Even
Israel's traditional allies are speaking out against the latest round of
ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah.

The US envoy to the United Nations expressed 'concern' over the forced
expulsion in the Palestinian neighbourhood. "To make progress, both Israel
and the Palestinian Authority must refrain from unilateral steps that
exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state
solution," Linda Thomas-Greenfield said
<https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-at-a-un-security-council-open-debate-on-the-situation-in-the-middle-east2/>,
using the usually guarded language. However, Thomas-Greenfield went on to
warn against the "annexations of territory, settlement activity,
demolitions and evictions – like what we saw in Sheikh Jarrah."

Also on 19 January, US lawmaker, Rep. Mark Pocan strongly criticised
<https://twitter.com/repmarkpocan/status/1483900421018116097> the Israeli
decision to forcefully evict the Salhiya family in Sheikh Jarrah.

"Last night, in the cover of darkness & freezing cold, the homes of the
Salhiyeh family in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, were destroyed by Israeli
forces leaving 15 people homeless. This is unacceptable and must end," Pocan
tweeted <https://twitter.com/repmarkpocan/status/1483900421018116097>,
adding the popular hashtag #Savesheikhjarrah.

For his part, the UN Middle East special envoy, Tor Wennsland, strongly
condemned the expulsion of the Palestinian family by Israeli occupation
authorities.

"I call on Israeli authorities to end the displacement and eviction of
Palestinians, in line with its obligations under international law, and to
approve additional plans that would enable Palestinian communities to build
legally and address their development needs," the UN website reported
<https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/sc14769.doc.htm> Wennesland as saying.

Back to Erdan's display, where he showcased Palestinian 'terrorism' by
presenting the supposedly damning evidence of a rock.

*Opinion: A new Palestinian generation is leading a different media
strategy
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210811-a-new-palestinian-generation-is-leading-a-different-media-strategy/>*

It must be said that criticising or defending Palestinian resistance,
however symbolic, allows Israel to engage in a misleading and frivolous
conversation that creates a moral equivalence between the occupier and the
occupied, the colonialist and the colonised.

Whether Palestinians use a stone, a gun or a clenched fist to resist and
defend themselves, their resistance is morally and legally
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/right-to-resist-in-occupied-palestine-denial-and-suppression/>
justifiable. Israel, on the other hand, like all other military occupiers
and colonialists, has neither a moral nor a legal argument to justify its
oppression of Palestinians, the destruction of their homes – like that of
the Salhiya family – and the killing of their children.

Judging by the growing solidarity with Palestinians everywhere, it is clear
that Erdan's pathetic display is just another exercise in political
futility.

Nothing that Israel can say or do will alter the glaring reality, that a
new generation of Palestinians is, once again, unifying the Palestinian
discourse, namely around Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Whether Israeli oppression is happening in Sheikh Jarrah
<https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/sheikh-jarrah-and-the-renewed-israeli-palestinian-violence>,
in Gaza
<https://www.oxfam.org/en/timeline-humanitarian-impact-gaza-blockade>, or
the Naqab desert
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/13/israeli-forces-violently-suppress-palestinian-protest-in-naqab>,
Palestinians now collectively respond as one unified political body. Thanks
to the May 2021 rebellion, gone are the days in which Palestinians are
expelled from their homes in the middle of the night as if a routine event,
with no consequence.

Moreover, the political language that is being used to describe events in
Palestine in the international arena is itself changing. Israel's 'right to
defend itself' is no longer the knee-jerk reaction that is often used to
describe Israeli violence and Palestinian resistance.

And finally, it seems that Israel is no longer the party shaping events in
Palestine and controlling the discourse around these events. Palestinians,
and a growing international movement of supporters, are proactively shaping
global perceptions of the realities on the ground. Neither Erdan nor his
bosses in Tel Aviv can reverse this Palestinian-led momentum. His UN
display merely reflects the degree of desperation and intellectual
bankruptcy of Israel and its representatives.

*Opinion: The UN war crimes probe is still tarnished by decades of colonial
support for Israel
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211230-the-un-war-crimes-probe-is-still-tarnished-by-decades-of-colonial-support-for-israel/>*

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
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