<html>
<body>
<h1><b>Never Against! European Collusion in Israel's Slow
Genocide</b></h1><font size=3>January 22, 2008 By <b>Omar Barghouti</b>
<br>
Source: <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9241.shtml">The
Electronic Intifada</a> <br><br>
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle//zspace/omarbarghouti">
Omar Barghouti's ZSpace Page</a> <br><br>
<a href="https://www.zcommunications.org/zsustainers/signup">Join
ZSpace</a> <br><br>
The European Union, Israel's largest trade partner in the world, is
watching by as Israel tightens its barbaric siege on Gaza, collectively
punishing 1.5 million Palestinian civilians, condemning them to
devastation, and visiting imminent death upon hundreds of kidney dialysis
and heart patients, prematurely born babies, and all others dependent on
electric power for their very survival.<br><br>
By freezing fuel and electric power supplies to Gaza, Israel, the
occupying power, is essentially guaranteeing that "clean" water
-- only by name, as Gaza's water is perhaps the most polluted in the
whole region, after decades of Israeli theft and abuse -- will not be
pumped out and properly distributed to homes and institutions; hospitals
will not be able to function adequately, leading to the eventual death of
many, particularly the most vulnerable; whatever factories that are still
working despite the siege will now be forced to close, pushing the
already extremely high unemployment rate even higher; sewage treatment
will come to a halt, further polluting Gaza's precious little water
supply; academic institutions and schools will not be able to provide
their usual services; and the lives of all civilians will be severely
disrupted, if not irreversibly damaged. And Europe is apathetically
watching.<br><br>
Princeton academic Richard Falk considered Israel's siege a "prelude
to genocide," even before this latest crime of altogether cutting
off energy supplies. Now, Israel's crimes in Gaza can accurately be
categorized as acts of genocide, albeit slow. According to Article II of
the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, the term is defined as: <br><br>
<br><br>
"[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as
such:<br>
(a) Killing members of the group;<br>
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;<br>
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
..."<br><br>
<br><br>
Clearly, Israel's hermetic siege of Gaza, designed to kill, cause serious
bodily and mental harm, and deliberately inflict conditions of life
calculated to bring about partial and gradual physical destruction,
qualifies as an act of genocide, if not all-out genocide yet. And the EU
is suspiciously silent.<br><br>
But why accuse Europe, in particular, of collusion in this crime when
almost the entire international community is not lifting a finger, and
the UN's obsequious Secretary-General, who surpassed all his predecessors
in obedience to the US government, is pathetically paying only lip
service? In addition, what of the US government itself, Israel's most
generous sponsor that is directly implicated in the current siege,
especially after President George W. Bush, on his recent visit, gave a
hardly subtle green light to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ravage
Gaza? Why not blame the Palestinians' quiet Arab brethren, particularly
Egypt -- the only country that can immediately break the siege by
reopening the Rafah crossing and supplying through it the necessary fuel,
electric power and emergency supplies? And finally, why not blame the
Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, whose subservient and visionless
leader openly boasted in a press conference its "complete
agreement" with Bush on all matters of substance?<br><br>
After Israel, the US is, without a doubt, the guiltiest party in the
current crime. Under the influence of a fundamentalist, militaristic,
neo-conservative ideology that has taken over its helms of power and an
omnipotent Zionist lobby that is unparalleled in its sway, the US is in a
category by itself. It goes without saying that the PA, the UN, as well
as Arab and international governments maintaining business as usual with
Israel should all be held accountable for acquiescing, whether directly
or indirectly, to Israel's crimes against humanity in Gaza. It is also
true that each one of the above bears the legal and moral responsibility
to intervene and apply whatever necessary pressure to stop the crime
before thousands perish. But the EU commands a unique position in all
this. It is not only silent and apathetic; in most European countries
Israel and Israeli institutions are currently welcomed and sought after
with unprecedented warmth, generosity and deference in all fields --
economic, cultural, academic, athletic, etc. For instance, Israel was
invited as the guest of honor to a major book fair in Turin, Italy.
Israeli government-funded films are featuring in film festivals all over
the continent. Israeli products, from avocados and oranges to hi-tech
security systems, are flooding European markets like never before.
Israeli academic institutions are enjoying a special, very lucrative,
association agreement with the relevant organs in the EU. Israeli dance
groups, singing bands and orchestras are invited to European tours and
festivals as if Israel were not only a normal, but in effect a most
favored, member of the so-called "civilized" world. Official
Europe's once lackluster embrace of Israel has turned into an intense,
open and enigmatic love affair.<br><br>
If Europe thinks it can thus repent for its Holocaust against its own
Jewish population, it is in fact shamefully and consciously facilitating
the committal of fresh acts of genocide against the people of Palestine.
But Palestinians, it appears, do not count for much, as we are viewed not
only by Israel, but also by its good old "white" sponsors and
allies as lesser, or relative, humans. The continent that invented modern
genocide and was responsible for massacring in the last two centuries
more human beings, mostly "relative humans," than all other
continents put together is covering up crimes that are reminiscent in
quality, though certainly not in quantity, of its own heinous crimes
against humanity.<br><br>
In no other international affair, perhaps, can the European establishment
be accused of being as detached from and indifferent to its own public
opinion. While calls for boycotting Israel as an apartheid state are
slowly but consistently spreading among European civil society
organizations and trade unions, drawing disturbing parallels to the
boycott of South African apartheid, European governments are finding it
difficult to distinguish themselves from the overtly complicit US
position vis-a-vis Israel. Even European clichés of condemnation and
"expressing deep concern" have become rarer than ever nowadays.
Moreover, Israel's relentless and defiant violation of Europe's own human
rights laws and conditions are ignored whenever anyone questions whether
Israel should continue to benefit from its magnanimous association
agreement with the EU despite its military occupation, colonization and
horrific record of human rights abuse against its Palestinian victims. If
this is not complicity, what is?<br><br>
Morality aside, sinking Gaza into a sea of darkness, poverty, death and
despair cannot bode well for Europe. By actively propping up an
environment conducive to the rise of fanaticism and desperate violence
near its borders, Europe is foolishly inviting havoc to its doorstep.
Instead of heeding -- or at least seriously considering -- calls for
boycott, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel, adopted by
virtually the entire spectrum of Palestinian civil society, it may soon
have to reckon with uncontainable forces of irrational and indiscriminate
violence and its resulting chaos.<br><br>
It seems European elites are currently determined never to oppose Israel,
no matter what crimes it commits. It is as if the bellowing -- and
increasingly hypocritical -- slogan upheld by Jewish survivors of
European genocide, "Never Again!", is now espoused by European
elites with one difference: the two letter, 's' and 't', are added at the
end.<br><br>
<i>Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian political analyst and
founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural
Boycott of Israel
(</font><a href="http://www.pacbi.org/"><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
www.PACBI.org</a></font><font size=3>)<br><br>
<br><br>
</i></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>