GUEST BLOG: Leslie Bravery – UN ‘Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict’

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In a 22 June 2015 article concerning the UN Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict, the Guardian newspaper’s columnist commented that: “Israel launched its offensive last July in response to heavy rocket fire from Hamas and other militant groups.” This kind of unqualified comment is routine in the mainstream news media, it sets the tone for anything that follows. Whatever one may read further about the issue, the important point you are expected to bear in mind is that if an attack is carried out as a “response”, then it follows that the target of the attack must thereforebe to blame for starting the violence.

Provocation

Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ began on 7 July 2014. Nearly four months earlier, on the 14 Marchthe New Zealand Herald published two stories of violence over Gaza with the headlines ‘Israeli warplanes strike back in Gaza’ and ‘Rockets strike Israel, jeopardising truce talk’. Those headlines and the general tone of the reporting gave the impression that the Israeli military action had been simply a response to unprovoked Palestinian aggression. However, the actual record of the balance and timing of violence over the Gaza Strip reveals a different reality. That same month, before the actions reported in those stories, there had been no Palestinian missile attacks on Israel for the first four days, whereas Israel had attacked Gaza on each of the first three. These attacks included Israeli drone strikes that killed two Palestinians in Beit Hanun and wounded two children – one of them critically. In those first three days, Israeli artillery fired upon North Beit Lahiya, Abasan al-Kabira and Khuza’a. In addition, the Israeli Navy opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats off Beit Lahiya and al-Sudaniya. On 5 MarchPalestinian missiles were fired towards the Green Line but over the ensuing five days, until 10 March, there were no Palestinian missiles fired, while on 8 and 10 March, the Israeli Navy again opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats off Beit Lahiya. Also on 10 March, under cover of shelling from Israeli tanks, the Army shot itsway onto Khaza’a village farmland and bulldozed crops. On 11 March, Palestinian missiles were fired in two separate actions after Israeli drone strikes in East Rafah had killed three persons and injured another. That evening, the Israel Navy opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats, hijacking one of them and taking prisoner two crew members. 

Relentless Israeli violence

In case anyone may think that the dates presented above as examples are not typical, let us go back to the month before. The February record of the balance and timing of violence (seewww.palestine.org.nz) reveals an even greater asymmetry in both theaggression and numbers of victims. Palestinian missiles were fired on six days in that month and, according to the Israeli Army, caused no death, injury or damage. At the same time, there were Israeli attacks on 19 days and the Israeli Navy enforced economically-damaging fishing restrictions on Palestinian fishing boats on every day of the month. Also in February there were three Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, 41 Israeli Army attacks and 54 Palestinians wounded (including seven children). Five people were critically injured and three of those critically injured were children. The Israeli Army also killed two Palestinians in Gaza, including a mentally-handicapped woman.

‘Operation Protective Edge’ ended with a so-called ceasefire. Most people believe the fragile ceasefire is “holding for now”. Up until recently, World Vision believed that also but after the Palestinian Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand raised an objection to the claim that appeared on World Vision’s website and provided evidence to the contrary, the relief agency withdrew the statement. 

The ceasefire that never was

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Israel sees to it that the Gaza ceasefire is non-existent but, thanks to the mainstream news media, very few people know that. Since the beginning of 2014, up to and including 21 June, there have been 422Israeli ceasefire violations[1] as opposed to handful of Palestinian violations[2]Over this time 26 people in Gaza have been wounded and four have died as a result of Israeli armed aggression. This comes on top of the appalling toll taken by Israel during Operation Protective Edge reported on by the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry as follows:

2,251 Palestinians were killed, including 1,462 Palestinian civilians, of whom 299 women and 551 children; and 11,231 Palestinians,including 3,540 women and 3,436 children, were injured (A/HRC/28/80/Add.1, para.24), of whom 10 per cent suffered permanent disability as a result.” 

Whether Israeli attacks on Gaza are part of operations such as Protective Edge or simply ceasefire violations, Palestinians, at sea, on farmland or in their homes, have nowhere to hide. While Palestinian armed resistance relies chiefly on the largely ineffectual launching of missiles, the fact that they put civilians in Israel at risk is indefensible and also, while the missile firings are certainly counter-productive – they are understandable. No people in history who ever had a capacity to hit back at invading, occupying forces, have ever refrained from actually doing so. The allied forces fighting Nazi Germany were merciless in their destruction of cities and the killing of civilians once they got the upper hand. The French Resistance certainly didn’t shrink from brutality against both enemy occupation personnel and those French citizens who collaborated with the occupying forces. From the point of view of many oppressed people, such retaliation helps to restore their sense of dignity.

Most of Gaza’s population are refugees. The imposition of the state of Israel on their homeland is the cause of their dispossession, exile and imprisonment in the concentration camp that Gaza has been forced to become. The Palestinian people living there are part of the wider Palestinian community, victims of the longest military occupation in modern history. Missiles fired from Gaza are a manifestation not only of frustration with the plight of Palestinians living in Gaza but also with the suffering of the wider Palestinian family in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Whenever Palestinian families are ejected from their homes to make way for Israeli Army exercises, or have to stand by while the Israeli Army destroys their homes, or find themselves trying to comfort their terrified children as Israeli soldiers invade their homes at dead of night, all Palestinians feel their pain.

The timing and disproportionate levels of violence over the Gaza Strip reveal a different reality from that offered by the mainstream news media. This is not a dispute between equal parties, it is anachronistic colonialism at its most ideologically hateful being perpetrated against a defenceless populationThe massive injustice manifests itself in the racist discrimination that the Palestinian people experience in their homeland and the isolation that grips them in refugee camps elsewhere. 

Reality

No Jewish Israeli children are abducted from their homes in the middle of the night and forced to appear before military courts.

No Jewish Israeli families have to endure the frequent invasions of their homes by heavily armed soldiers.

No Jewish Israeli families are ejected from their homes to make way for military exercises.

No Israeli olive trees are destroyed.

No Israeli crops are bulldozed.

No Israeli fishing boats are targeted, hijacked or sunk.

No Jewish Israeli families are split apart and prohibited from reuniting.

No Jewish Israeli families are forced to live in refugee camps.

No Jewish wells, water reticulation or power supplies are destroyed.

No Jewish homes are demolished.

Imagine if . . .

Imagine the news media reporting and headlines that would appear ifthe above realities were to be visited upon the Israelis rather than the PalestiniansThe Palestinians, whose only crime is that they are not Jewish, look to the world community for justice and restoration; for it is the world community that facilitated the establishment of the state of Israel. The UN Security Council continues to favour the Zionist state with impunity in the face of these inhumanitiesZionism should beunacceptable and, if it were not being aided and abetted by the most powerful leaders of the world community, it would surely be allowed to wither and die. Understanding, like justice, depends upon openness and respect for truth. Understanding allows us to recognise and feel for the suffering of others.

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CEASEFIRE VIOLATION NOTES:

[1] Five Palestinian ceasefire violations are listed as follows:

Palestinian missile attack: Northern Gaza – 21:1023 April, one missile fired into southern Israel – no injury or damage.

Armed Palestinian resistance – military target: Central Gaza – 17:006 May Palestinian Resistance fighters opened fire on an Israeli Military vehicle.

Palestinian missile attack: Northern Gaza – 21:00, 26 May, a number of missiles fired towards the Green Line.

Palestinian missile attack: Northern Gaza – evening, 26 May, the Palestinian Resistance fired three missiles towards the Green Line in response to an Israeli Navy hijacking of a Palestinian fishing boat and two Israeli Army attacks on Gaza farms – one farmworker was wounded. Israeli has perpetrated over 380 ceasefire violations since the beginning of this year.

Palestinian missile attacks: Northern Gaza – evening, 3 June, the Palestinian Resistance fired three missilestowards the Green Line in response to an Israeli Navy hijacking of a Palestinian fishing boat and two Israeli Army attacks on Gaza farms – one farm worker was wounded. Israel has perpetrated over 380 ceasefire violations since the beginning of this year. Israeli violence against Gaza since the beginning of this year has resulted in 4 Palestinian deaths and 24 people wounded. 

[2] Just a few examples of the more than 400 Israeli ceasefire violations to 21 June 2015. (All Palestinian ceasefire violations for the period are included):

2 January 2015

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Rafah – dawn, the Israeli Navy opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats, wounding one fisherman, Jamal Nu’man, and destroying his boat.

16 January 2015

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Northern Gaza – evening, one person was wounded when an Israeli Army position behind the Green Line opened fire on people in east Jabalya.

21 January 2015

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Gaza – 09:30, the Israeli Navy opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats off al-Sudaniya, wounding a fisherman, Atef Bakr, and damaging his fishing boat.

23 January 2015

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Northern Gaza – evening, one person was wounded when an Israeli Army position behind the Green Line opened fire on residents in east Jabalya.

26 January 2015

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Gaza – 19:00, the Israeli Navy opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats, sinking one of them and taking prisoner five fishermen, including two children: Saed Al-Habeil (13) and Adel-Mu’ti Al-Habeil. The three adults seized were Rami Al-Habeil, Mur’eb Abu Raylah and Ibrahim Nassar.

February 2015

Death: Rafah – Midhat Ghayad (a resident of the al-Salam neighbourhood) died of injuries sustained during the Israeli blitz on the Gaza Strip on 03 August 2014.

10 February 2015

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Central Gaza – an Israeli Army position behind the Green Line opened fire on the al-Maghazi refugee camp, wounding a resident.

13 February 2015

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Khan Yunis – morning, several homes were damaged when an Israeli Army position behind the Green Line opened fire on residents in east Khan Yunis.

13 February 2015

Palestinian missile attacks: none.

Central Gaza – 10:15, the Israeli Army stormed into the north-east quarter of the Maghazi refugee camp, opening fire on and wounding a resident, Ahmad Salaah, before taking him prisoner.

Leslie Bravery is a Londoner with vivid World War Two memories of the Nazi blitz on his home town. In 1947/1948 His father explained to him what was happening to the Palestinians thus: “Any ideology or political movement that creates refugees in the process of realising its ambitions must be inhuman and should be opposed and condemned as unacceptable.” What followed confirmed this assessment of the Zionist entity a hundredfold. Now a retired flamenco guitarist, with a lifelong interest in the tragedy of what happened to the Palestinian people, he tries to publicise their plight. Because the daily injustices they suffer barely get a mention in the mainstream news media, Leslie edits/compiles a daily newsletter, In Occupied Palestine, for the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. These days, to preserve his sanity, he enjoys taking part in a drama group whenever possible!