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<h1 id="reader-title"><small>The Palestinian Bubble and the
Burning of Toddler, Ali Dawabsha</small></h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/ramzy-baroud/"
rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud</a><br>
</span><br>
<span class="post_date" title="2015-08-04">August 4, 2015<br>
</span><b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/04/the-palestinian-bubble-and-the-burning-of-toddler-ali-dawabsha/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/04/the-palestinian-bubble-and-the-burning-of-toddler-ali-dawabsha/</a></small></small></b><br>
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<p>One-and-a-half year old Ali Saad Dawabsha became the
latest victim of Israeli violence on July 31. He was
burnt to death. Other members of his family were also
severely burnt in a Jewish settlers’ attack on their
home in the village of Duma, near Nablus, in the West
Bank.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Rabbis for Human Rights <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2015/7/31/%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%B7%D9%81%D9%84-%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%82-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%87-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86">told
Aljazeera Arabic</a> that this is the tenth attack on
Nablus by settlers in July. A statement issued by the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) provided an
even <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766760">more
alarming statistic</a>, putting the number of Jewish
settlers’ attacks, some of them lethal, at an estimated
11,000 since the end of 2014.</p>
<p>Ali Dawabsha is not the first Palestinian child to be
burnt to death, although the <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/05/palestinian-boy-mohammed-abu-khdeir-burned-alive">story
of Mohamed Abu Khdeir</a> who was tortured and burnt
alive by a group of Jewish extremists in July 2014 now
serves as a hideous benchmark for Israeli settler
violence, which is often conducted under the watchful
eye of – or as part of larger violent campaign led by –
the Israeli army.</p>
<p>Despite Israeli political theater and statements of
condemnations following Abu Khdeir’s grisly murder,
Israeli violence against Palestinians is part and parcel
of Israel’s Occupation policy, draped in numerous crimes
gone unpunished.</p>
<p>Little Ali is no different from the <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-50day-war-by-numbers-9693310.html">490
Palestinians killed</a> in Israel’s last summer war on
Gaza, which killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly
civilians. The Dawabsha family home, which was
completely burnt, (while Ali’s mother, father and
brother, Ahmed, all sustained serious burns) was no
different from the 20,000 Gaza homes which, <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-50day-war-by-numbers-9693310.html">according
to the UN</a>, were destroyed during the Israeli
carnage in the Strip.</p>
<p>The West Bank and Gaza, despite physical separation and
Palestinian factionalism, are united by a rapport of
suffering and a trail of blood that proves stronger than
the Hamas-Fatah dispute. They are also united in the
perception of Israel, which sees Ali and all Palestinian
toddlers as a <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-israel-s-arabs-are-the-real-demographic-threat-1.109045">demographic
threat</a> to the ‘Jewish identity’ of the state.</p>
<p>In its statement, the PLO held Israel ‘<a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766760">fully
responsible</a>‘ for Ali’s murder and the burning of
his family and their home. The “brutal assassination”
of Ali is “a direct consequence of decades of impunity
given by the Israeli Government to settler terrorism,”
said PLO Official, Saeb Erekat.</p>
<p>Of course, the statement is accurate, and if these
words were uttered by anyone other than the ‘Chief
Negotiator’ of the Palestinian Authority (PA), one could
have taken them seriously. Alas, such statements only
highlight the duplicity and contradiction of the
official Palestinian position. In fact, one cannot help
but feel that the PA is partly responsible for Ali’s
death. The reasons are as follows.</p>
<p>Israel’s impunity is encouraged by many factors,
including US-Western backing and the lack of
international will to hold Israel – Government, army and
settlers – accountable for their crimes. But that
impunity is also encouraged by the Palestinian
leadership itself, which lives in a massive political
and economic bubble in Ramallah, in the West Bank.</p>
<p>Erekat is a resident in the Ramallah bubble. His job
consists of two main aspects: to sustain the charade
using all the right sounding words, that the PA and
Israel are locked in some sort of a perpetual conflict
(although they are not) while concurrently
working closely with Israel to ensure the survival of
the PA.</p>
<p>The PA cannot exist without Israeli support, as
Israel’s military Occupation and illegal settlement
expansion cannot be sustained without the security arm
of the PA, which has suppressed any serious resistance
to Israel in the West Bank. Using ‘security
coordination’, the PA apprehends any Palestinian who
dares pose a threat, real or imagined, to the Israeli
occupation and the settlers.</p>
<p>In other words, the PA helps in ensuring the safety of
the settlers, like those who killed Ali and many others
like him.</p>
<p>Naturally, facing little or no resistance, the
settlements are growing. The latest planned expansion
was <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/20120-peace-now-criticises-netanyahus-decision-to-build-new-settlement-units">just
announced by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu</a>, who plans to construct hundreds of new
illegal settlement homes on confiscated Palestinian
land, in the Jewish settlements of Pisget Ze’ev, Ramot,
Gilo and Harhoma in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>In his statement, Erekat did not forget to link the
murder of Ali: “We cannot separate the barbaric attack
that took place in Duma last night from the recent
settlement approval by the Israeli Government, a
Government which represents an Israeli national
coalition for settlements and Apartheid.”</p>
<p>But he, along with his boss, Mohammed Abbas, intends to
do nothing about it. On the contrary, despite his and
other PA officials’ fiery statements, the constant
message the PA, in actuality, sends to Israel is that
Palestinians are okay with the status quo, and
business will carry on as usual, burnt babies or not.</p>
<p>Consider this as an example: the <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/20075-the-stalemate-in-the-palestinian-political-system">PA
Central Council voted in March</a> to halt
negotiations and security coordination with Israel. The
decision, meant for public consumption mostly, hardly
mattered, as top PA officials, including <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/blogs/politics/20128-erekat-israel-and-the-international-agenda">Erekat
himself, held recent ‘secret’ talks</a> with Israeli
Government officials in Amman, Jordan.</p>
<p>According to Tayseer Khalid of the “Democratic Front
for the Liberation of Palestine”, speaking to Ma’an,
“Sadly the PLO Executive Committee and Palestinian
leaders know about such meetings only from the Israeli
media.”</p>
<p>‘Sadly’, indeed, especially since the Amman meeting was
designated as a ‘trust-building’ strategy (a clue that
America had a hand in it), and which included Erekat and
Israeli Interior Minister, Silvan Shalom.</p>
<p>But that is, in fact, the actual PA strategy in all of
its deficiencies and contradictions. The cornerstone of
that strategy is to sell as many brands, no matter how
conflicting, to different groups of people for the sake
of self-preservation. Erekat is, perhaps, often the
scapegoat, since he is the most visible face of the PA
apparatus but numerous others, too, are implicated in
selling mirages to the Palestinian people, while taking
part in preserving the very violent occupation that is
destroying Palestinian society, robbing it of land,
water, and dignity.</p>
<p>A few hours after Ali’s murder, PA officials were
scheduled to line up in Ramallah, in front of Abbas, as
four new ministers were being sworn in. The <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766752">revamping
of the so-called unity government</a> took place <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/20133-hamas-cabinet-reshuffle-is-a-coup">without
the approval of Hamas</a>, thus hammering the last
nail in the Palestinian Unity coffin which never
actualized, to begin with.</p>
<p>The four new ministers, who ultimately have no real
authority under the rule of the Israeli Occupation, will
read al-Fatiha (verses of the Quran) on the soul of
Palestine’s latest ‘hero martyr’, little Ali. A real or
fake tear by one or more officials might be highlighted
in the Ramallah media to accentuate the emotional bond
between the Ramallah bubble and all Palestinians. The
charade will carry on for a few more months or years,
where the PA will fight against the Occupation using
every word available, and fight for the occupation using
every means available.</p>
<p>This is the sad tale of the Palestinian leadership and
its Ramallah bubble, which is yet to burst.</p>
</div>
<p class="author_description"> <em><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong>
has been writing about the Middle East for over 20
years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a
media consultant, an author of several books and the
founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My
Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto
Press, London). His website is: ramzybaroud.net</em> </p>
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