Pity the people of Sderot and Askhelon—pawns in the latest politically-motivated Israeli war by air, sea and land on Gaza and the Palestinian people. The fight for their lives and Israel’s security are the reasons for the death of more than 900 Palestinian people and the injury of 4,000 others. They are also the reason for the two-year long blockade of Gaza preceding the Israeli “defensive” military operation. The blockade, which deprived Palestinians of their basic life necessities, including food, water and electricity, has also rendered powerless the democratically-elected Hamas government.
It is in the name of security too that Gazans live in what is commonly acknowledged to be the world’s only open-air prison with 1.5 million incarcerated Palestinians.
This war, according to popular perceptions, is falsely portrayed as a war between equals. That is, a war between those who pursue peace and justice, embrace modernity, accept the rule of law and honor ceasefire agreements, and militant groups who break agreements that aim at peaceful resolutions and seek death, destruction and the end of Israel. And as the mainstream press reports, the Israeli Defense Forces is a civilized army that never deliberately targets Palestinian civilians and takes great pains to protect the lives of innocents, including humanitarian aid workers.
Repeatedly we are fed an argument that the war is a fight against Islamic terrorists who cowardly hide behind women, children and the elderly, and who use mosques, universities and civil institutions to launch hundreds and thousands of deadly rockets on innocent Israelis. It is a war, the world is told, between Qassam rockets equal in their strength and deadliness to precision-guided munitions, massive artillery bombardments, and the use of white phosphorous as an offensive weapon by one of the world’s most powerful armed forces.
Sadly, nothing is said of the Israeli military’s breach of the Geneva Conventions in its targeting of civilian areas—except for the occasional “concern,” reluctantly expressed by world leaders, about the plight of civilian Palestinians in Gaza. Citizens disturbed by the barbarity of war should really ask what this seemingly symmetrical picture leaves out, and whose stories, pain and suffering such representations deliberately elide.
“There is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce,” says Tzipi Livni, aspiring prime minister of Israel. This position reflects the continuing Israeli—and Canadian-backed—attempts to dehumanize the Palestinian people, to reduce the magnitude of their calamity, and to collectively punish and blame them for Israeli aggression.
Countries such as Canada are exacerbating, through their silence, the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe by permitting the state of Israel to continue its assault on Gaza. Canada, the first country to lead the international suspension of aid to the Hamas government, has also undermined the basic foundation to a functioning democratic system of governance; Canada’s favoring of what has been described as the collaborationist Palestinian Authority of Fatah has contributed to the further policing, isolating, and punishing of the Palestinian people in Gaza. By unquestionably sanctioning Israel’s right to defend itself at any cost, Canada is complicit in the massacre and destruction taking place in the region today. Our country’s actions effectively undermine any hope for a peaceful resolution to this conflict, especially a resolution that takes into consideration the rights, safety and security of both Israelis and Palestinians.
What chances are there for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when for generations Palestinians have only encountered the Israeli state through violent, inhumane and unjust displays of its military power and aggression? What has the Israeli Defense Force—in its callous and reckless military assault—accomplished other than allow emotions of disillusionment, fear, anger and hatred to fester?
For Palestinians, the blockade and the siege on Gaza constitute palpable threats to their very livelihoods; their continuation renders true Israel’s constant lament that it has no partner in peace. The normalization of occupation, as well the continued attacks against Palestinian lives, create an environment that breeds extremism on both sides and disables the possibility of co-existence, dialogue and communication between Israelis and Palestinians.
This dialogue, while necessary, is only possible when we acknowledge—as journalist and author Robert Fisk reminds us—the irony of rockets falling on Ashkelon, a city emptied in 1948 of its Palestinian inhabitants who became—and continue to be—refugees on the shores of Gaza. Without an acknowledgement of this and countless other examples of Palestinian history, the chance of a real solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains slim—if not altogether impossible.
Dana Olwan is a faculty member in the department of Women’s Studies and a PhD candidate in the department of English. Ethan Holtzer is a member of Indepedent Jewish Voices, a coalition of Canadian Jews critical of the policies of the Israeli government.
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