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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2019/10/8/On-Racism-and-Wild-Beasts-Why-Israel-besieges-Palestinians">https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2019/10/8/On-Racism-and-Wild-Beasts-Why-Israel-besieges-Palestinians</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">On Racism and ‘Wild Beasts’: Why Israel
besieges Palestinians</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Ramzy Baroud - October 8,
2019<br>
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<article id="ltrFullPageDiv"> The Israeli Apartheid Wall,
which is being built largely on occupied Palestinian land
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, once more underscores
the ugliness of military occupation. As such, it truly
epitomizes the nature of Israeli apartheid and also
delineates the siege-driven, isolationist mentality that
dominates the ruling-class thinking in Israel.
<p>
Even years before the establishment of the state of
Israel over the ruins of the Palestinian homeland in May
1948, Zionist communities in Palestine perfected the
stratagem of besiegement, isolating themselves behind
massive walls while blockading Palestinians, the native
inhabitants of the land, in every way possible.</p>
<p>
Throughout the Nakba – the catastrophic ethnic cleansing
and destruction of Palestine in 1947-48 – Israel used
this military theory in abundance. Neighborhoods,
villages and entire towns would be besieged for days,
weeks or months, while being bombarded from all
directions before their residents were finally pushed
out. None of these ethnically-cleansed Palestinian
communities, which numbered in the hundreds of
thousands, were ever allowed to return to their homes.</p>
<p>
In fact, besiegement and isolation remain at the core of
the Israeli military strategy to date.</p>
<p>
No other place, however endured the brutality of the
seemingly never-ending siege like the Gaza Strip. Gaza,
that small region of 365 square kilometers, has been
under various stages of besiegement and blockade since
1948.</p>
<p>
The most hermetic stages of this perpetual siege began
some time in 2006 and intensified in the summer of the
following year. Three factors make the latest siege on
Gaza particularly horrific: its long duration, the lack
of any serious respite for besieged Gazans and, most
importantly, the fact that it has been interrupted by
massive Israeli wars that killed and wounded thousands
of Palestinians. With much of Gaza’s infrastructure
destroyed or dilapidated, the Israeli blockade on the
Strip has proved to be the most savage and deadliest of
all sieges.</p>
<p>
On 30 September, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that
nearly 70 per cent of an underground barrier east of
Gaza is now complete. An estimated 1,400 Israeli and
foreign workers are reportedly taking part in building
the barrier, which when finished, will extend to reach
60 kilometers in length.</p>
<p>
Considering the layers of walls, fences, trenches and
no-go military zones, the additional underground wall
around Gaza seems frivolous. Is it possible that Israeli
leaders truly believe that Gaza is not isolated enough?</p>
<p>
In actuality, the latest wall will likely satisfy a
psychological, not a practical objective, as it gives
the Israeli army and southern settlements a temporary
sense of safety, while once more hailing Israeli leaders
as the protectors of a defenseless and exposed nation.</p>
<p>
Oddly, while scores of young Gazans continue to be
killed at the fence separating Gaza from Israel while
protesting the Israeli siege on the Strip, it is the
Israelis who claim to be targeted, unsafe and
victimized.</p>
<p>
The newest wall, once it is officially launched with
massive fanfare, will still make no difference. It will
not upgrade the status of the Gaza siege in any way, nor
will it alter the collective fear that has been
thoroughly instilled in ordinary Israelis.</p>
<p>
For Gazans, wall or no wall, the siege will remain
intact.</p>
<p>
Israeli wall architects may argue that the latest wall
will deter Palestinians from digging tunnels as well as
preventing resistance fighters from circumventing the
siege via the sea – since part of this underground
barrier will also extend into the Mediterranean Sea.</p>
<p>
However, there is no proof that walls or fences, over
ground or underground barriers have prevented
Palestinians from retaliating against Israeli attacks.
If the Israeli logic holds any truth, Palestinian
resistance would have dissipated or folded decades ago
as the Israeli siege mentality was put into practice
from the very start of the Israeli war on the
Palestinian people.</p>
<p>
Israel receives $3.8 billion in US funding, in addition
to hundreds of millions in loans and other financial
giveaways which are mostly used to fortify Israel’s
so-called security. To no avail. Palestinians,
impoverished and incarcerated in Bantustan-like
structures and open-air prisons, continue with their
resistance unhindered.</p>
<p>
It is clear that the Israeli security model has failed.
In fact, that model never had a chance of success in the
first place. The additional Israeli wall around Gaza and
the hundreds of other walls and fences that are yet to
be built are only meant to feed the collective illusion
among Israelis and their leaders that the answer to
their problem does not lie in ending the apartheid
regime, military occupation and siege, but in adding
more layers of “security”.</p>
<p>
“At the end of the day as I see it, there will be a
fence like this one surrounding Israel in its entirety.
We will surround the entire state of Israel with a
fence, a barrier,” Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu, said on 9 February 2016 during a visit of the
construction site of the barrier around Gaza.</p>
<p>
Netanyahu added: “In our neighborhood, we need to
protect ourselves from wild beasts.”</p>
<p>
While such language and behavior reflect the
deeply-rooted racist mentality at work in Israel, they
also underscore the dehumanized way in which Israel sees
Palestinians. Since “wild beasts” are not human, they
can be killed en masse, besieged and ethnically cleansed
in their millions without an iota of regret or remorse.</p>
<p>
The problem then is not that of “security” or so-called
“terrorism”. Not that of Hamas, or any other group,
secular or Islamist. It is not that of Gaza’s March of
Return or of children approaching the fences around
Gaza. The problem is the entrenched Israeli racist
mentality that perceives Palestinian natives as
sub-humans and as “wild beasts” to be exterminated or
forever besieged.</p>
<p>
- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of
Palestine Chronicle. He has authored a number of books
on the Palestinian struggle including ‘The Last Earth: A
Palestinian Story’. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine
Studies from the University of Exeter and is a
Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and
International Studies, University of California Santa
Barbara. </p>
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