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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/stop-punishing-palestinians-resisting-oppression/33246">electronicintifada.net</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Stop punishing Palestinians for resisting oppression</h1>
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy">Maureen Clare Murphy</a></span> -<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publisher"></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">14 June 2021</span></span> </p>
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<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2021-05/240521_rh_1_00_1.jpeg?itok=y9pxjpUE×tamp=1623676608" alt="Boy sits on rubble in front of makeshift tent amid destroyed buildings" title="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="470" height="313"></span><p>How many times will Israel be allowed to wreak widespread destruction in Gaza?</p><small>
<span>APA images</span></small><p>Israel’s most powerful allies will never succeed in their aim of Palestinian surrender.</p>
<p>Yet they continue to empower Israel and prolong Palestinian pain in
their grotesque treatment of an anti-colonial struggle for liberation as
a conflict between two equal parties to be managed seemingly in
perpetuity.</p>
<p>One of the cruelest aspects of this approach is the maintenance of
the air, land and sea blockade on Gaza that has been imposed by Israel
with the help of Egypt since 2007.</p>
<p>The siege has kept Gaza teetering on the brink of collapse and made
life miserable and precarious for its population of more than two
million Palestinians.</p>
<p>The International Committee of the Red Cross affirmed <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/update/palestine-update-140610.htm">more than a decade ago</a> that the siege on Gaza constitutes a war crime of collective punishment.</p>
<p>Yet there is no serious international effort to bring it to an end.
World powers appear content for the siege to become as permanent as
Israel’s military occupation as a whole.</p>
<p>The so-called Quartet and the states and bodies it represents – the
United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia – made <a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-europe-africa-middle-east-migration-a3533fae044b8c71e64642aa5431df78">no demand</a>
on Israel to lift the siege after an unconditional ceasefire ended 11
days of bombing and terrorization of the coastal enclave last month.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sc14527.doc.htm">Neither</a> did the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>Instead, these powers fell back on well-worn calls for a bilateral two-state solution, calls that they have been repeating <em>ad nauseum</em> since the mid-1990s following the signing of the Oslo accords by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.</p>
<p>In something of a novel twist, Russia <a href="https://tass.com/politics/1293183">welcomed</a>
with the ceasefire Washington’s renewed commitment to a two-state
solution following the Trump administration’s ridiculed “Prosperity for
Peace” plan.</p>
<p>That plan – informally known as the Deal of the Century – <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/omar-karmi/trumps-win-win-plan-hands-everything-israel">did not feign</a> acknowledgment of Palestinian rights and national aspirations.</p>
<p>Critics <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/trump-peace-deal-israels-apartheid-blueprint">said</a> it envisioned a permanent state of military occupation, apartheid and Palestinian suffering.</p>
<p>Which is exactly the <em>de facto</em> situation today, <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-were-never-table/25531">made possible</a> by the peace process charade managed by the Quartet.</p>
<p>Those most committed to this pretense stick close to the script:
“both sides” bear equal responsibility for maintaining a ceasefire and
relative calm, ignoring the essential relationship of colonization
between Israel and the Palestinian people whose land it covets.
</p>
<h2>Sidelining Hamas</h2>
<p>Though Israel has a new government, there is absolutely <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israels-government-same-ax-new-executioner">no reason</a> to expect its longstanding policies towards Palestinians, and Gaza in particular, to change.</p>
<p>The managers of the peace process charade defaulted to envisioning a return to the pre-escalation <em>status quo</em> in Gaza before and after the ceasefire.</p>
<p>Tor Wennesland, the UN secretary-general’s Middle East envoy, omitted any mention of the siege during his <a href="https://unsco.unmissions.org/security-council-briefing-situation-middle-east-including-palestinian-question-delivered-un-6">briefing</a> to the Security Council in late May.</p>
<p>He did say that “Palestinian national unity and the return of a
legitimate Palestinian Government to Gaza is [sic] needed to move
forward sustainably.”</p>
<p>This means the continued sidelining Hamas, which governs Gaza’s
internal affairs and leads the armed resistance there, in favor of the
Palestinian Authority, which <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/how-palestinian-authority-helps-protect-israeli-settlers">serves as an enforcement arm</a> of the Israeli occupation by stamping out Palestinian resistance against it.</p>
<p>Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/blinken-hamass-foothold-in-gaza-could-slip-if-us-led-rehabilitation-successful/">said</a>
that “if we do this right, reconstruction and then relief for the
people of Gaza — far from empowering Hamas — has the potential to
undermine it.”</p>
<p>Israel also sees opportunities to advance its interests by imposing political conditions on humanitarian aid.</p>
<p>Its foreign ministry has suggested that it would use access to aid as leverage against the International Criminal Court’s <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/icc-launches-palestine-war-crimes-probe">investigation</a> of war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza.</p>
<p>The ministry <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2021/Pages/FM-Ashkenazi-meets-with-US-Secretary-of-State-Antony-Blinken-25-May-2021.aspx">said</a>
working groups would be established to implement “civilian projects in
Judea and Samaria” – the term Israel uses for the West Bank – “while
simultaneously setting out demands [on] the Palestinians, including
ceasing petitions to international institutions and stopping
incitement.”</p>
<p>Israel’s targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure during
its rampage in Gaza in 2014 is a primary focus of the ICC probe.
Successive international commissions of inquiry have recommended
targeted sanctions and other forms of pressure to avoid another episode
of Israeli violence in the territory.</p>
<p>But those calls have gone unheeded and the prevailing situation of impunity has allowed Israel to attack Gaza yet again.</p>
<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2021-05/240521_ash_3_00_83.jpeg?itok=o1d0X1VC×tamp=1623676608" alt="Yahya Sinwar raises arms in air and makes V for victory hand gesture while standing on stage" title="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="470" height="309"></span><p>Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, greets supporters during a rally in Gaza City on 24 May.</p><small>
<span>Ashraf Amra</span>
<span>APA images</span></small><p>Israel is
obliged by international law to provide for the humanitarian needs of
the civilians living under its military occupation, including in Gaza.</p>
<p>But instead of seeking the respect and enforcement of those
obligations, third states foot the bill for the reconstruction after
each destructive confrontation in the territory.</p>
<p>Not only has Israel been exempted from providing reparations to Gaza,
it controls what can be brought into the territory and when.</p>
<p>It limits or bans so-called <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/greenblatts-bag-lies">dual-use items</a>
that might be used for military purposes and delays security clearance
approvals on materials, taking years for projects to be completed.</p>
<p>Projects begun after the last war were not yet completed before Israel wrought a fresh round of destruction last month, as <em>The Christian Science Monitor</em> <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2021/0608/We-lost-everything.-Gazans-looking-to-rebuild-see-only-obstacles">reports</a>.</p>
<p>And where Israel does allow essential supplies into Gaza, its own companies <a href="https://www.972mag.com/who-profits-from-keeping-gaza-on-the-brink-of-humanitarian-catastrophe/">reap profits</a> by selling <a href="https://whoprofits.org/updates/reconstruction-of-gaza-zero-buildings-massive-profit/">construction materials</a> and others goods and services to international agencies.</p>
<p>Rebuilding will be painfully protracted and mired in restrictions. By
contrast, Washington is rushing to replace the missiles that Israel
used to destroy Palestinian lives and homes in Gaza.</p>
<p>The US State Department <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/breaking-news-days-before-approving-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza-state-department-agreed-to-contentious-bomb-sale-to-israel/">approved</a>
a $735 million sale of precision-guided munitions despite congressional
opposition and calls for an arms embargo by human rights groups <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/biden-administrations-approval-of-weapons-sale-to-israel-will-put-civilians-at-greater-risk/">including Amnesty International</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the UN is expected to continue to enforce the siege via the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/under-cover-reconstruction-un-and-pa-become-enforcers-israels-gaza-siege">Under that mechanism</a>,
the UN gathers private information about Palestinian households to be
passed onto Israel, which has a veto over which families get aid to
rebuild their homes. This makes the UN an active participant in Israel’s
crimes.</p>
<h2>Conditioning rights on surrender</h2>
<p>The aim of Israel’s siege on Gaza is the surrender of armed resistance to occupation and colonization – a right <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-un-telling-palestinians-protect-their-occupiers">enshrined in international law</a>.</p>
<p>By prioritizing the return of a “legitimate Palestinian government”
to Gaza, the UN is conditioning the basic right to a dignified life on <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/why-un-pushing-gazas-surrender">capitulation to colonial rule in Palestine</a>.</p>
<p>Upholding the siege on Gaza is part of a broader strategy to punish
civilian populations when their leaders don’t bend to imperial will.</p>
<p>Sweeping sanctions have been imposed on Iran and Syria, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=26630&LangID=E">impeding post-war rebuilding</a> and the <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/01/14/un-expert-crippling-us-sanctions-on-syria-are-illegal-and-hurting-civilians/">provision of humanitarian relief</a> in the latter.</p>
<p>Parallel to the impact of Israel’s siege on Gaza, the Congressional Research Service <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS20871.pdf">acknowledges</a>
that economic sanctions have not “altered Iran’s pursuit of core
strategic objectives including its support for regional armed factions
and its development of missiles.”</p>
<p>But they have made it difficult for families to make ends meet while <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-iran-health-middle-east-religion-96507a6e7400c4230432a77f2039ce4d">undermining Iran’s ability</a> to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-sanctions/u-n-envoy-urges-u-s-to-relax-venezuela-sanctions-drawing-opposition-rebuke-idUSKBN2AC2HD">Venezuela</a> has been targeted as well, with a UN human rights expert <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/12/world/us-venezuela-sanctions-alina-douhan-intl/index.html">determining</a> that the US, UK and EU-backed sanctions “constitute violations of international law.”</p>
<p>The Palestinian experience has demonstrated that surrender will not result in any gain. The Oslo accords only brought about <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-were-never-table/25531">more land theft and tightened Israeli control</a>.</p>
<p>And this is why Palestinian groups in Gaza resist, with broad public
support, despite the asymmetry of power between them and Israel.</p>
<p>Israeli military doctrine <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/report-finds-new-israeli-war-doctrine-targets-civilians/1004">makes no distinction</a>
between combatants and civilians and its forces deliberately target
civilian infrastructure in a cruel and fruitless attempt to generate
public opposition to the resistance.</p>
<h2>High cost</h2>
<p>The cost of maintaining a Jewish settler-colonial state in Palestine
has always been high, paid for with countless Palestinian and Lebanese
lives.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-massacre-price-jewish-state">Gaza has shouldered the burden</a> of this unbearable cost in recent years. But the equation of power has shifted.</p>
<p>The resistance in Gaza, with the support of Iran and Hizballah in
Lebanon, has increased its capacity with each confrontation with Israel.</p>
<p>The latest episode resulted in an <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-36-how-palestinian-resistance-defeated-israel">effective defeat</a> for the latter.</p>
<p>After the ceasefire was declared, Hamas’ armed wing <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hamas-armed-wing-we-humiliated-the-enemy/">said</a> it “humiliated the enemy.”</p>
<p>A commentator in the Tel Aviv daily <em>Haaretz</em> <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-this-is-israel-s-most-failed-and-pointless-gaza-operation-ever-it-must-end-now-1.9819484">called it</a> “Israel’s most failed and pointless Gaza operation ever.”</p>
<p>The chief of the Israeli military <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/army-chief-says-idf-victory-in-gaza-conflict-may-not-have-deterred-hamas/">acknowledged</a> that little if any deterrence against the resistance was achieved.</p>
<p>After launching thousands of rockets, Hamas said that it still had
enough in its stockpiles to keep firing towards Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-lebanon-beirut-middle-east-israel-palestinian-conflict-6f1ffbca19bc1c2635ae897deca4fd5c">several more months</a>.</p>
<p>Rocket fire from Gaza <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-shuts-ben-gurion-airport-to-incoming-flights-amid-rocket-fire-from-gaza/">shut down</a> traffic at Israel’s main international airport near Tel Aviv, and then its <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-hamas-rocket-aimed-at-israel-s-eilat-airport-misses-operations-temporarily-halted-1.9805632">backup airport</a> near Eilat after projectiles reached that area.</p>
<p>Though still vast, the gap of power between Israel and the armed resistance is narrowing.</p>
<p>Israel’s military <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-gaza-hamas-military-technology-revealed-remote-approach">avoided the boundary</a> with Gaza this May after it proved deadly for its forces in 2014.</p>
<p>Israel claims that Hamas is “developing an electronic jamming system
to be used against the Iron Dome defense system,” as Gilan Erdan, the
Israeli ambassador to the US, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-gaza-tower-that-housed-ap-doubled-hamas-electronic-warfare-site-2021-06-08/">told</a> media.</p>
<p>Erdan attempted to justify Israel’s targeting of the tower housing
the agency by asserting that it was being used to develop this
technology. AP said it has seen no evidence proving this claim.</p>
<p>Cryptocurrency transactions beyond the reach of the US Treasury department <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-gaza-conflict-spurs-bitcoin-donations-to-hamas-11622633400">allow Hamas to fundraise</a> while circumventing international sanctions.</p>
<p>Perhaps even more worrying for Israel than the increased strength of
the armed resistance in Gaza is Palestinian unity throughout their
occupied homeland.</p>
<p>Israel was quickly overwhelmed last month by various forms of
resistance throughout historic Palestine: rocket and anti-tank fire from
Gaza, confrontational protests and firefights in the West Bank,
rebellions in Palestinian communities inside the Green Line where <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/today-we-are-nazis-says-member-israeli-jewish-extremist-group/33081">police-backed settler mobs</a> chanted “Death to the Arabs.”</p>
<p>Israel may well find itself even more quickly overwhelmed in any future military confrontation.</p>
<p>Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizballah, which forced Israel to
withdraw its occupation from Lebanon in 2000 and defeated it militarily
in 2006, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-hezbollah-chief-says-attacks-jerusalem-mean-regional-war-2021-05-25/">warned</a> in late May that the next Israeli attack on holy sites in Jerusalem could mean a regional war.</p>
<p>Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-hamas-leader-another-israel-gaza-flare-up-will-change-the-face-of-the-middle-east-1.9876580">said</a>
earlier this month that resistance factions only used “half of their
force” in the May confrontation and the next one would “change the face
of the Middle East.”</p>
<p>The Israeli military knows this isn’t mere bluster.</p>
<p>An Israeli military ombudsman <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-losing-our-religion-israel-s-air-force-delusions-1.9879763">said this month</a>
that “hundreds of sorties and hundreds of planes dropped thousands of
precision munitions costing billions of shekels” but were unable to halt
the firing of rockets and mortars from Gaza.</p>
<p>“Hamas and Islamic Jihad continued launching … as if nothing
happened, and they apparently could have continued to do so for a long
time,” he added.</p>
<p>The ombudsman projected that in a future multi-front war, “thousands
of missiles and rockets will be fired at Israel … relentlessly in all
directions. … Every day, thousands of missiles and rockets will be fired
at the population centers … missiles whose destructive power is 10
times that of Hamas’ rockets.”</p>
<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2021-05/main_image46748_q6phz6tavc.jpg?itok=Q3GapEVk×tamp=1623676608" alt="Man wearing kuffiyeh around his neck holds up T-shirt reading F*CK the Oslo agreement" title="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="470" height="353"></span><p>A protester repudiates the Oslo accords during a demonstration in front of the Norwegian parliament on 19 May.</p><small>
<span>Ryan Rodrick Beiler</span>
<span>ActiveStills</span></small><p>A regional war
will bring untold bloodshed, destruction and suffering. Those who have
fostered a culture of impunity and armed Israel unconditionally will
shoulder much of the blame for it.</p>
<p>All forms of resistance against colonization in Palestine have been
branded illegitimate by Israel’s powerful friends, whether it be seeking
remedy at the International Criminal Court; through the global boycott,
divestment and sanctions movement; or armed struggle.</p>
<p>The UN secretary-general has not publicly supported the ICC investigation.</p>
<p>Instead, he has welcomed normalization agreements between Israel and
nearby authoritarian states, which former US President Donald Trump’s
secretary of state has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/pompeo-says-f-35-sale-to-uae-was-critical-to-the-abraham-accords/">confirmed</a> were glorified arms deals.</p>
<p>Israel has been lavished with weapons and funding while international expressions of solidarity with Palestinians are <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/boycott-right-and-duty/32981">repressed and criminalized</a>.</p>
<p>Sinwar recently <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/its-time-change-liberal-discourse-about-hamas/33376">pointed out</a> that when Palestinians held massive unarmed protests and were <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/one-year-gazas-great-march-return">gunned down by Israeli military snipers</a>, the world looked on and did nothing.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/its-time-change-liberal-discourse-about-hamas/33376">Armed struggle is necessary</a>
when the behavior of an oppressor – and its international allies –
makes it so, to paraphrase the South African revolutionary Nelson
Mandela.</p>
<p>Fourteen years of Quartet-backed siege and multiple military
offensives have not and will not force Palestinians to capitulate and
surrender the cause of national liberation.</p>
<p>Yet Israel’s powerful allies seem willing to risk a regional war to
maintain the peace process charade in service of a Jewish
settler-colonial state in Palestine.</p>
<p>And for everyone else outside of Palestine who wants to help defray
the cost of liberation: Boycott, divestment and targeted sanctions are <a href="https://www.palestineposterproject.org/poster/bds-is-the-floor-not-the-ceiling-brooklyn-museum">the floor, not the ceiling</a>, of solidarity.</p>
<p><em>Maureen Clare Murphy is senior editor of The Electronic Intifada.</em></p><br>
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