Finkelstein Norman - This Time We Went Too Far, Ebooki

Finkelstein Norman - This Time We ...

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Finkelstein Norman - This Time We Went Too Far, Ebooki - KINDLE

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FOREWORD
Alongside many others I have devoted much of my adult life to
the achievement of a just peace between Israel and Palestine. It
cannot be said that Palestinians living under occupation have
derived much beneﬁ t from these eﬀ orts. The Israeli juggernaut
proved unstoppable. The changes that have occurred have only
been for the worse. Under the guise of what is called the “peace
process” Israel has eﬀ ectively annexed wide swaths of the West
Bank and shredded the social fabric of Palestinian life there and
in the Gaza Strip.
It would nonetheless be unduly pessimistic to say that no
progress has been made. Israel can no longer count on reﬂ exive
support for its policies. Public opinion polls not only outside
but also inside Jewish communities around the world over the
past decade reveal a growing unease with Israeli conduct. This
shi largely stems from the fact that the public is now much
be er informed. Historians have dispelled many of the myths
Israel propagated to justify its dispossession and displacement
of Palestine’s indigenous population; human rights organiza-
tions have exposed Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians liv-
ing under occupation; and a consensus has crystallized in the
legal-diplomatic arena around a se lement of the conﬂ ict that
upholds the basic rights of Palestinians.
The simmering discontent with Israeli conduct reached
boiling point in December 2008 when Israel invaded Gaza. The
merciless Israeli assault on a defenseless civilian population
evoked widespread shock and disgust. Deep ﬁ ssures opened
up in the Jewish communities, especially among the younger
generations. Many of Israel’s erstwhile supporters who did not
vocally dissent chose to remain silent rather than defend the
indefensible.
The ﬁ rst part of this book analyzes the motives behind
Israel’s assault on Gaza and chronicles what Amnesty Interna-
tional called “22 days of death and destruction.” The least that
we owe the people of Gaza is an accurate record of the suﬀ ering
they endured. No one can bring back the dead or restore the
sha ered lives of those who survived, but we can still respect
the memory of their sacriﬁ ce by preserving it intact.
This book is not just a lament, however; it also sets forth
grounds for hope. The bloodle ing in Gaza has roused the
world’s conscience. The prospects have never been more pro-
pitious for galvanizing the public not just to mourn but also to
act. We have truth on our side, and we have justice on our side.
These become mighty weapons once we have learned how to
wield them eﬀ ectively. The challenge now is twofold: to mas-
ter, and inform the public of, the unvarnished record of what
happened in Gaza; and then to mobilize the public around a
se lement of the conﬂ ict that all of enlightened opinion has
embraced—but that Israel and the United States, standing in
virtual isolation, have rejected. It is my hope that this book will
help meet this challenge and, ultimately, enable everyone, Pal-
estinian and Israeli, to live a digniﬁ ed life.
1/ SELF-DEFENSE
Question:
What do you feel is the most acceptable
solution to the Palestine problem?
Mahatma Gandhi:
The abandonment wholly by the Jews
of terrorism and other forms of violence.
(1 June 1947)
1
On 29 November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly
approved a resolution dividing British-mandated Palestine into
a Jewish state incorporating 56 percent of Palestine and an Arab
state incorporating 44 percent of it.
2
In the ensuing war the
newly born State of Israel expanded its borders to incorporate
nearly 80 percent of Palestine. The only areas of Palestine not
conquered comprised the West Bank, which the Kingdom of
Jordan subsequently annexed, and the Gaza Strip, which came
under Egypt’s administrative control. Approximately 250,000
Palestinians driven out of their homes during the 1948 war and
its a ermath ﬂ ed to Gaza and overwhelmed the indigenous
population of some 80,000.
Today 80 percent of Gaza’s inhabitants consist of refugees
from the 1948 war and their descendants, and more than half
of the population is under 18 years of age. Its current 1.5 million
inhabitants are squeezed into a sliver of land 25 miles long and
ﬁ ve miles wide, making Gaza one of the most densely popu-
lated places in the world. The panhandle of the Sinai Peninsula,
Gaza is bordered by Israel on the north and east, Egypt on the
south, and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. In the course of
its four-decade-long occupation beginning in June 1967, and
prior to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s redeployment of Israeli
troops from inside Gaza to its perimeter in 2005, Israel had
imposed on Gaza a uniquely exploitive regime of “de-develop-
ment” that, in the words of Harvard political economist Sara
Roy, deprived “the native population of its most important eco-
nomic resources—land, water, and labor—as well as the inter-
nal capacity and potential for developing those resources.”
3
The road to modern Gaza’s desperate plight is paved with
many previous atrocities, most long forgo en or never known
outside Palestine. A er the cessation of ba leﬁ eld hostilities in
1949, Egypt kept a tight rein on the activity of
Fedayeen
(Pal-
estinian guerrillas) in Gaza until February 1955, when Israel
launched a bloody cross-border raid into Gaza killing 40 Egyp-
tians. Israeli leaders had plo ed to lure Egypt into war in order
to topple President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the Gaza raid
proved the perfect provocation as armed border clashes esca-
lated. In October 1956 Israel (in collusion with Great Britain
and France) invaded the Egyptian Sinai and occupied Gaza,
which it had long coveted. The prominent Israeli historian
Benny Morris described what happened next:
Many
Fedayeen
and an estimated 4,000 Egyptian and Palestin-
ian regulars were trapped in the Strip, identiﬁ ed, and rounded
up by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], GSS [General Security Ser-
vice], and police. Dozens of these
Fedayeen
appear to have been
summarily executed, without trial. Some were probably killed
during two massacres by the IDF troops soon a er the occu-
pation of the Strip. On 3 November, the day Khan Yunis was
conquered, IDF troops shot dead hundreds of Palestinian refu-
gees and local inhabitants in the town. One U.N. report speaks
of “some 135 local residents” and “140 refugees” killed as IDF
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