Responsibility lies with the oppressor

Mainstream Western-aligned news media report Israeli aggression within a contrived and misleading context. Basic truths relating to international law and historical facts are ignored, in order to create an image of the brutal Israeli Occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as the blockade of Gaza, as legitimate or at least negotiable.

Terminology, such as that used by the BBC with its headline “Clashes erupt at contested holy site” to describe armed Israeli violations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, are all too familiar. While women and children cried for help during armed Israeli raids on al-Aqsa, worshippers were brutally assaulted and dismissed as lawless agitators. The violent population-control, imposed by Israeli military Occupation, leads understandably to acts of Resistance. The regular reporting of them as ‘clashes’ is pure reality-obscuring propaganda. The Palestinian people are forced to remain defenceless.

Describing Al Aqsa as a ‘contested’ holy site bows to the demands of the Occupying power’s Zionist ideology. A few months after the Six-Day War in 1967, a halakhic ruling reaffirmed that “it is forbidden for Jews to enter any part of the Temple Mount”. As recently as 2005, that ruling was again confirmed. However, Israel’s Police Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, asserts that “Jews must go up to the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is not just for Arabs . . .” He went on to describe the site, now under Israeli military Occupation, as “. . . the most important place in the State of Israel. We won’t give up on it.” No wonder that many Jews, the world over, oppose Zionism!

In line with the news media, Western governments also choose to obscure the asymmetry of responsibility between military Occupation and the defenceless population’s Resistance to it. For example, in a release from the official website of the New Zealand Government, Foreign Affairs Minister, Nanaia Mahuta, even while acknowledging the criminal Israeli “violation of international law and forced evictions occurring in East Jerusalem” had her officials tell the Israeli Ambassador: “All sides have a responsibility to de-escalate, stop the violence and prevent further suffering and loss of life.”

Population-control

Of course, military Occupation provokes Resistance and, while International Law recognises the principle of Resistance as lawful, Israel, with news-media complicity, benefits by presenting all acts of Resistance as either ‘terrorism’ or ‘clashes‘ against law and order. The Israeli Occupation treats with contempt Palestinians trying to live a normal life in their homeland. As daily reports reveal, Israeli forces frequently demolish Palestinian homes for lacking construction ‘permits‘. Palestinian homes are also frequently invaded night and day by the Israeli Army. There is no guarantee of security for Palestinians in their homes from which, at night, even children are often abducted for interrogation.

The arrogant invader imposes its will, relentlessly and in every direction. There is no such thing as freedom of movement for Occupied Palestinians. Israeli military checkpoints are everywhere, severely hindering and even preventing movement whenever and wherever it pleases the Occupier. Illegally-imposed Israeli settlements are connected, both to each other and to Israel, by what are termed bypass roads which divide the West Bank, isolating communities, disrupting agriculture and hindering social development. Palestinians are, of course, subjected to a variety of restrictions and prohibitions on most of these roads.

Israeli settlements, illegal under under international law, are imposed by military might amid defenceless communities, laying the foundation for ever wider annexations of land. The racist fanaticism of many extremist settlers is leading to mounting physical, agricultural and economic harm. Settlers invade Palestinian farmland almost daily, uprooting and cutting off branches from olive trees, ruining crops and plundering produce. Palestinian shepherds are frequently violently assaulted and forced by settlers and the Israeli military alike, to abandon their flocks and pastoral land. Often that same land is seized by settlers.

When the people try to defend themselves and their property, the Israeli Army often arrives to support the settlers. The news media and politicians carry on as though the belligerent Israeli ‘security‘ forces, having invaded another people’s land, should yet be trusted to respect Palestinian human rights and international law.

An Al Jazeera TV interviewer recently questioned three people: Nour Odeh (a political analyst and former spokeswoman for the Palestinian National Authority), Uri Dromi (founder and President of the Jerusalem Press Club and former spokesman for the Israel Government) as well as Francesca Albanese (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories). All three responded to the interviewer as well as commenting on each other‘s replies. The facts spoke for themselves and Uri Dromi appeared uncomfortable throughout. After listening to and watching the three speakers, readers can judge for themselves whether any Israeli government representative would have fared any better.

Just imagine then, if Israel’s leaders could only be brought to public account and answer before the United Nations, how effective and eye-opening that would prove.