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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231205-israel-is-the-worlds-frankenstein-state/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel is the world’s Frankenstein state</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Middle East Monitor</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">December 5, 2023<br></div>
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<p>In Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel <i>Frankenstein</i>, the main character
creates a being by stitching together parts from dead bodies. The
resultant monster initially sought to fit into society, but transformed
into an evil creature when faced with rejection by society. And in the
novel, the monster’s creator, Victor Frankenstein, felt immense guilt
for the deaths and terror that his creation wrought upon others.</p>
<p>The novel came out almost 100 years before Britain gave life to the
plan to create a hybrid entity in the Middle East with the issue of the
infamous 1917 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/11/2/more-than-a-century-on-the-balfour-declaration-explained">Balfour Declaration</a>. That and later imperialist action helped to create a much more sinister, diabolic monster in 1948: the state of Israel.</p>
<p>The imperial West’s creation was, it must be said, different to
Shelley’s. While Frankenstein’s monster began by not harming anyone,
Israel was actually founded on terrorism, killing, oppression and the <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/work/the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine/">ethnic cleansing</a>
of 750,000 Palestinians. More than 500 Palestinian towns and villages
have since been destroyed and wiped off the map. This is called the <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170515-remembering-the-nakba/">Nakba</a>
by the Palestinians: the catastrophe. The state’s founding ideology,
Zionism, is based around genocide and racial supremacy, so this should
not have been a surprise to anyone, then or now.</p>
<p>Israel has never sought to fit into the global community of civilised
nations; that would have contradicted the ideology upon it was founded.
And so, the pre-state massacres against the Palestinians — such as that
in <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180409-remembering-the-massacre-at-deir-yassin/">Deir Yassin</a> — continued, with many more, including <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230522-remembering-the-tantura-massacre/">Tantura</a>
(1948), Gaza (1956) and Al-Aqsa Mosque (1990), to name but three. Over
the decades, the killing went hand in hand with land theft; <a href="https://icahd.org/2021/04/20/the-demolition-of-palestinian-homes-by-israel-a-fact-sheet/#:~:text=Posted%20on%20April%2020%2C%202021,buildings%2C%20schools%2C%20etc.">home demolitions</a>; hundreds of thousands of <a href="http://www.miftah.org/Doc/Factsheets/Miftah/English/Prisoners.pdf">political prisoners</a>; the displacement of another <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-expert-warns-new-instance-mass-ethnic-cleansing-palestinians-calls#:~:text=The%20Naksa%2C%20which%20led%20to,war%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20expert%20said.">350,000 Palestinians in 1967</a>;
an illegal and brutal military occupation since 1967; attacks on
Al-Aqsa Mosque; the list goes on. Even the Palestinians who acquired
citizenship in the part of Palestine now called Israel have not been
spared from the state’s supremacist ideology. They face official
discrimination under more than <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7771">65 Israeli laws</a> which effectively make them second-class citizens.</p>
<p><b>READ: </b><a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231205-icrc-president-describes-human-suffering-in-gaza-as-intolerable/"><b>ICRC president describes human suffering in Gaza as ‘intolerable’</b></a></p>
<p>The latest Israeli onslaught against the Palestinians in Gaza comes
on top of a sixteen-year blockade and major military offensives in <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181227-remembering-israels-2008-war-on-gaza/">2008/9</a>, <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171114-remembering-israels-operation-pillar-of-defence/">2012</a>, <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200802-remembering-israels-2014-attack-on-gazas-universities/">2014</a> and <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220508-remembering-11-days-of-endless-resistance-in-the-gaza-strip/">2021</a>,
as well as frequent incursions by the so-called Israel Defence Forces.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed 189 protesters during the 2018 <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190330-remembering-the-great-march-of-return/">Great March of Return</a> in the Gaza Strip, including 35 children; at least 36,000 were wounded, many of whom died of their injuries.</p>
<p>It should be clear to any reasonable person, therefore, that the
history of violence in occupied Palestine did not begin on 7 October
with the attack by Palestinian resistance fighters across the nominal
border into the occupation state. And that most of the violence has been
perpetrated by Israel.</p>
<blockquote><p>The Palestinians are not just statistics, though, they
are human beings, with families, loved ones, hopes, dreams and
aspirations</p></blockquote>
<p>This Frankenstein monster of a state has continued its genocidal
path, bombing hospitals and other civilian infrastructure — including
homes, mosques and churches — as well as cutting off food, water,
electricity and medicine supplies from 2.3 million people. Most of the
16,000 Palestinians killed in the past few weeks have been children and
women; the IDF targets civilians “purposely”. The Palestinians are not
just statistics, though, they are human beings, with families, loved
ones, hopes, dreams and aspirations, who are living through hell and
bombardment every day as Israel’s genocide takes place in real time on
social media.</p>
<p>When I hear the despicable claim that Israel has a right to “defend
itself”, I say keep quiet until you pull your head out of that dark
place. Israel is an occupying power. It has no legal right to
self-defence against the people living under its occupation. Indeed, in
this case it is the Palestinians who have the right to resist that
occupation, and defend themselves, using any means at their disposal,
including armed struggle. That’s the law. Supporting Israel’s
non-existent “right to self-defence” is simply the West’s way of giving
it the green light to carry on with its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/un-official-resigns-israel-hamas-war-palestine-new-york">genocide</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, Israelis are now <a href="https://arabic.euronews.com/video/2023/10/31/video-israeli-women-bids-farewell-to-soldier-going-to-fight-in-gaza">calling openly</a> for the genocide of the Palestinian people, reminding us of their compatriots who were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/israelis-cheer-gaza-bombing">cheering the bombs</a>
as they dropped on the heads of Palestinian children in Gaza in 2014.
It is possible that the Hamas fighters came into contact with those
“innocent” Israelis on 7 October.</p>
<p><b>OPINION: </b><a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231205-dying-to-be-free-releasing-palestinian-captives-is-not-a-numbers-game/"><b>Dying to be free: Releasing Palestinian captives is not a numbers game</b></a></p>
<p>In the original story, Victor Frankenstein felt guilty for what he
created. Yet not only do the bloodthirsty imperialists in Washington,
London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels not feel guilty for what they created
in occupied Palestine, but they have also encouraged it to carry on
with its crimes. They are joined by a chorus of propagandists
masquerading as journalists and experts, creating a monstrous world in
the process, and carving out a history that will never forgive them.</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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