Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD.org)
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Israels core messages,
listed below, argue for the justice of its cause in Gaza, cast Israel as the victim
and ensure that its war is seen not in terms of occupation but of the broader
Western struggle against terror. The critical reframing we offer, that of
Israelis committed to human rights, international law and a just peace as the
only way out of this interminable and bloody conflict, argues that security
cannot be achieved unilaterally while one side oppresses the other and that
Israels attack on Gaza is merely another attempt to render its Occupation
permanent by destroying any source of effective resistance. It argues that
Israel could have avoided all attacks upon it over the last twenty years, and
the rise of Hamas, if it had genuinely negotiated a two-state solution with the
Palestinian leadership. Israel, the strong party and the Occupying Power, is
not the victim. Indeed, its attack on Gaza is a form of State Terrorism.
Israeli PR: Like all
countries, Israel has a right and duty to defend its citizens. Israel, acting
as any life-loving nation would, has a right to be a normal country living in peace
and security. Critical Reframing: To pursue offensive policies of prolonged occupation
as well as sanctions, boycotts and closures that impoverish a civilian
population, and to then refuse to engage with that populations elected leaders,
is not defending ones citizens. To expect your citizens to live in security
while a million and a half subjugated people just a few kilometers away live in
misery is both unrealistic and presumptive. Israel will only be able to defend
its citizens which is indeed its duty if it addresses the causes of their
insecurity, a 41 year-old occupation.
Israeli PR: Israel had
no choice but to attack in response to the barrage of 8,500 Hamas rockets fired
from Gaza into Israel over the past eight years that have killed 20 Israeli
civilians. Critical Reframing: In the past three years alone Israel together with the US, Europe and
Japan imposed an inhumane siege of Gaza while conducting a campaign of targeted
assassinations and attacks throughout the cease-fire that left 1,700 Palestinians
dead. Hamas barrage did not exist in a vacuum. This war is no response: it is
merely a more deadly round of the tit-for-tat arising out of a political
vacuum. The rocket firings could have been avoided had there been a genuine
political horizon. To present the barrage as an independent event disassociated
from wider Israeli policies that led to them is disingenuous.
Israeli PR: There is no
occupation in general, but specifically in Gaza. Israel ended its occupation of
Gaza in 2005 with the disengagement. Gaza could have flourished as the basis of
a Palestinian state, but its inhabitants chose conflict. Critical
Reframing: Economic development, not to
mention a political process which might have prevented the violence on both
sides, was actively prevented by both Israel and its international supporters,
which share responsibility for the present tragedy in Gaza. At no time since
the disengagement did Israel ever relinquish or even loosen its control. The
closure remained in force, including by sea; Gazans were never allowed to
reopen their sea or air ports; nor were any conditions conducive to economic
development allowed. Israels claim that there has never been an occupation of
the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza is rejected by every member of the
international community. Neither does it accept Israels claim that occupation
ended in 2005, since the definition of occupation in international law has to
do with exercising effective control of a foreign territory, which Israel
obviously does over Gaza.
Israeli PR: Only Hamas
violated the cease-fire, and thus it carries full responsibility. Critical
Reframing:
Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce (through Egypt) by which Israel would allow
the opening of the Gazan border crossings (at least partially) in return for an
end to rocket fire on Israel. Hamas largely, though not entirely, kept its part
of the bargain; Israel almost never did. Killings of Palestinians from the air
continued, and on the American election day in early November it attacked the tunnels
(which functioned as alternative means of supplying Gaza in the absence of open
borders, which would have allowed control over the movement of arms), killing a
number of Hamas people. In response Hamas launched rockets and.the truce began
breaking down.
Israeli PR: Israel is
only attacking the infrastructure of terror in Gaza and only targets Hamas
fighters. Critical Reframing: Being the elected government, all the
infrastructure, from traffic cops to schools to military installations, belong
to Hamas. It is clear that Israeli attacks go beyond the infrastructure of
terror. Whos a Hamas fighter? The graduating class of traffic cops that was
slaughtered in the first aerial attack on Gaza? Professors and students who
attend the Hamas Islamic University? Family members of Hamas military figures?
People who voted for Hamas? All, but for those actively participating in
hostilities, would be defined as civilians under international law.
Israeli PR: Civilians
may die, but its because Hamas hides its fighters and weapons factories among
ordinary people. Critical Reframing: Israels military headquarters are located in the
center of Tel Aviv, the military headquarters over the West Bank are in the
densely populated civilian settlement Neveh Yaakov in East Jerusalem, the
Pentagon is located in downtown Washington D.C. and the British Ministry of
Defence is located in central London. Hamas, of course, as both a government
and a military organization, carries responsibility for protecting the civilian
population and keeping the fighting away from them but the question that should
be asked, and never is, is why western nations who do the same are not faced
with such criticism?
Israeli PR: Hamas is a
terrorist organization that refuses to recognize Israel or enter into a
political process. Critical Reframing: Which Israel should Hamas
recognize? 1947 U.N. partition borders? 1967 borders? With annexed East
Jerusalem? With the settlement blocs? So long as Israel refuses to define its
borders then there is only an abstract concept available for recognition. Hamas
has openly declared that it will de facto recognize Israel on the 1967 borders.
Israel has made no such offers to any Palestinian faction, government or
representatives.
Israeli
PR: Hamas is a global problem, part of Islamist fundamentalism together with
Iran and Hezbollah and therefore Israel is only doing its part in the Wests
agreed-upon War on Terror. Critical Reframing: Hamas
started as a social welfare organization that was allowed by Israel to develop
as a political force in Occupied Palestine to weaken the standing of the
secular PLO. There also, was no Hezbollah prior to the 1982 Israeli invasion.
The theocrats in Iran were an organized but quite small political force until
the U.S. overthrew Irans democracy. The local population will always resist
when foreign countries try to oppose their will and the resistance will not
always be pretty. Painting Hamas as part of a global conspiracy when its a
product of the Occupation itself is disingenuous and a gross distortion of
history.