[News] Israel Will Not Defeat Gaza: A Lesson from History

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israel-will-not-defeat-gaza-a-lesson-from-history/>
Israel Will Not Defeat Gaza: A Lesson from HistoryNovember 15, 2023
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Palestinian women rally in Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine
Chronicle)

*By Ramzy Baroud <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud>*


The truth is Israel has no military option in Gaza, and those who support
whatever military strategy Tel Aviv has in mind, are equally deluding
themselves.

The ongoing discussions on the Israeli military objectives in Gaza are
largely focused on whether Israel is planning a long or short-term military
reoccupation of the Strip.

Israelis themselves are fueling this conversation, with 41 percent of
Israelis wanting
<https://new.thecradle.co/articles/majority-of-israelis-support-ceasefire-to-release-prisoners-poll#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Maariv%20poll,after%20the%20war%20is%20over.>
to leave Gaza following the war and another 44 percent wanting the Gaza
Strip to remain under Israeli control.

These numbers, revealed in an Israeli public opinion poll conducted by the
Lazar Institute and published
<https://www.maariv.co.il/news/politics/Article-1051161> by Maariv on
Friday, November 10, reflect real confusion regarding the legal status of
Gaza, even in the minds of Israelis themselves.

In truth, Israel was – and remains – the Occupying Power in Gaza and the
rest of Palestine, despite the ‘redeployment’ scheme from the small and
impoverished region in September 2005.

Back then, Israelis convinced themselves that they were no longer the
occupiers of the Strip and, therefore, are no longer responsible for it, in
accordance <https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3f1306a57.pdf> with
international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention.

But they are wrong, even if on September 21, 2005, the last day of the
redeployment, Tel Aviv declared
<https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/14505/israel%E2%80%99s-gaza-redeployment-2005>
Gaza a “foreign territory”. Almost exactly two years later, this supposed
“foreign territory” was declared
<https://www.gov.il/en/Departments/General/behind-the-headlines-israel-designates-gaza-a-hostile-territory#:~:text=In%20light%20of%20continued%20terrorist,area%20surrounding%20the%20Gaza%20Strip.>
a “hostile territory”, thus subjected to the ire of the Israeli military,
should it not respect Israeli sovereignty and pose a threat to Israel’s
southern borders.

International law, however, is not beholden to Israeli definitions. The
United Nations has repeatedly issued
<https://unwatch.org/un-we-still-consider-gaza-occupied-by-israel/>
statements insisting that Gaza remains an Occupied Territory.

Moreover, the fences and walls separating Gaza from Israel are not
internationally defined border regions, as designated by the armistice
agreement
<https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IL%20JO_490403_Hashemite%20Jordan%20Kingdom-Israel%20General%20Armistice%20Agreement.pdf>
established in 1949 between Israel, Egypt and other Arab countries –
following the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.

So, the heated Israeli discussions on occupying or not occupying Gaza after
the war are moot; Gaza has never been freed to be reoccupied.

Whether Israel accepts this obvious logic or not, it matters little, since
it is the international legal institutions, namely the UN, the ICJ and
others, that have the authority and responsibility to reach and enforce
such conclusions.

Still, however, Israel needs to be reminded of a few urgent matters.

One, resuming the siege on Gaza as usual will not resolve Israel’s
problems. After all, it was the hermetic siege – where Palestinians were
<https://imeu.org/article/putting-palestinians-on-a-diet-israels-siege-blockade-of-gaza>
“put on a diet” but not allowed to die, according to senior Israeli
government advisor Dov Weisglass in 2006 – which provided the main
rationale behind Gaza’s need to resist.

Two, it was that very resistance that forced Israel to redeploy from
populated areas in Gaza in the first place, leading to the draconian siege
which has been in place for nearly 17 years.

These dates and events are often overlooked by mainstream media because
they create an unnecessary inconvenience to the Israeli narrative regarding
the war.

In Western media, for example, it is commonplace to highlight September
2005 – though here ‘redeployment’ is perceived as ‘withdrawal’ – and
October 7, the Hamas attack on southern Israel, as the most significant
dates and events deserving attention. While the first is used to exonerate
Israel, the latter is used to implicate Palestinians.

But Palestinians, and anyone interested in the true context of this war,
should not feel bound to this logic.

Moreover, we should remember that the majority of Palestinians in Gaza are
descendants of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their homes and
villages in 1948. They, rightly, continue to see themselves as refugees
entitled to the Right of Return, as enshrined
<https://www.unrwa.org/content/resolution-194#:~:text=The%20United%20Nations%20General%20Assembly,not%20to%20return%20and%20for>
in UN Resolution 194.

Another date
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/6/4/the-naksa-how-israel-occupied-the-whole-of-palestine-in-1967>
worth remembering is June 1967, where Israel occupied whatever remained of
historic Palestine – East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

This event is critical, as it represented an earth-shattering historical
shift in Israel’s relationship with Palestinians, who became both victims
of Israeli settler colonialism and also military occupation.

The Israeli military occupation ushered in a new form of popular resistance
in Palestine, where ordinary, oppressed Palestinians confronted Israeli
soldiers daily.

The tools of that resistance, from 1967 until 2005, largely relied on civil
disobedience, popular strikes, mass protests and rock-throwing. Yet, that
was still enough for the Israeli military to be chased out of Gaza, thus
ending the everyday policing of the Strip in exchange for a new stage of
military occupation.

On the last day of the Israeli redeployment, tens of thousands of
Palestinians took to the streets in central Gaza soon after midnight to
confront Israeli soldiers as they evacuated the last military base, east of
the Bureij area.

Without prior coordination, the Gaza youth wanted to send a message to the
Israeli army that they were not welcome inside Gaza, not even in the last
hours of redeployment.

Israelis should reflect on this history.

They should also recall that the Israeli rush to escape Gaza – under the
leadership of a notorious military General, then Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon – took place when Palestinians had no army and a few arms. Their
armed resistance consisted mostly of poorly organized militias, backed by
the fury of hundreds of thousands of fed -up, occupied and oppressed
Palestinians.

If Israel returns to Gaza to stay, the challenge of governing the
rebellious Strip will be much more difficult. Gaza’s population has
increased exponentially since 2005. Moreover, the weakest of Gaza’s
fighting groups commands thousands of men, ready to fight and die to keep
the Israelis out.

Even more important, is that Israel has failed to govern one Gaza, though
tried for nearly four decades. If it foolishly decided to return, it would
have to contend with two Gazas – a defiant and empowered population above
ground, and tens of thousands of fighters below.

The truth is Israel has no military option in Gaza, and those who support
whatever military strategy Tel Aviv has in mind, are equally deluding
themselves.

The only solution to Gaza is the same solution to the rest of occupied
Palestine – a clear understanding that the real problem is not ‘Palestinian
terrorism’ or militancy, but the Israeli military occupation, apartheid and
unrelenting siege.

If Israel does not end its illegal actions in Palestine, leading to the
freedom, equality and justice for the Palestinian people, resistance, in
all of its forms, will continue unabated.


*– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.
He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé,
is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and
Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is*
*www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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