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For most of the past 100 years the Middle East has been the scene of conflict and struggle. The people of this region have experienced direct foreign intervention and colonization by major world powers, military coups, uprisings, and revolutions. The conflicts and struggles still continue. The behavior of the government of Israel toward the people of Palestine, and other countries in the region and its relationship with the West, particularly the United States, is a major source of conflict. This is especially evident now that Israel is in the news again with its recent military maneuvers threatening Iran, Obama’s speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s controversial trip to that country.
Since the creation of the state of Israel two myths have circulated. The first myth is that Arabs and Jews have been fighting for thousands of years, and the second is that the land that Israel was created on was a land with no people, for a people with no land. There has been some persecution of Jews in the Middle East, or in the so-called Islamic East, but it has never been to the extent that it existed in the West. During the Crusades, when Jerusalem was under Saladin and Moslem control, Jews had a much better life than when the city was under Christian control. Also, when Jews were forced out of Spain in 1492 by the Christian king, many Jews gained refuge in Islamic lands. In the West, on the other hand, there have been countless pogroms against the Jews, such as the ones in Russia and Poland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And in Europe, there was the great Jewish Holocaust of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Millions of Jews, among other people, were murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime and its allies.
With the advent of modern Zionism, which is a Jewish nationalist movement, in the late 19th century, migration to Palestine increased. Arab lands were bought or taken over by immigrants from Europe, with partial support of the British government. This caused increasing conflict between Arabs and Jewish immigrants. The migration of Jewish people from Europe increased tremendously after the Second World War and the Nazi atrocities, and also with the encouragement of Zionist organizations. In order to make the Zionist dream of establishing the state of Israel into a reality, a campaign of ethnic cleansing started. Zionist terrorist organizations (some of the future Israeli prime ministers were members of these groups) carried out attacks against Palestinian villages and towns. One of the most famous of such attacks was the massacre at the village of Dir Yassin, by a group called Irgun in April of 1948. Under the United Nations mandate the British occupied Palestine was to be partitioned into two states: one being Israel and the other a Palestinian state. In May 1948 Israel was established, but the Palestinian state was never created. The establishment of Israel caused hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to become refugees in other Arab countries and a smaller population became internally displaced people within Israel. The loss of land, home, and rights by the indigenous Palestinians clearly indicated that Israel was a colonial settler state just as North America and Australia were. The Palestinians had the same fate as Native Americans or Aborigines of Australia.
With the full military, diplomatic and financial support of the US and the former Imperial masters of the Middle East: Britain and France, Israeli government embarked on a continued policy of military build-up and conquering more lands. This culminated in June of 1967, in the Six Day War, where West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula were conquered and occupied. The continuing military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has become one of the longest occupations in recent history, even longer than the Japanese occupation of Korea in the early part of the 20th century. This Israeli occupation violates the 4th Geneva Convention and a number of UN resolutions. Israeli settlements continue to be built on Palestinian lands. Roads which only benefit the settlements have been and are being built. Precious water resources (one of the major sources of conflict between Arabs and Israelis) are used, trees uprooted, Palestinians homes destroyed and inhabitants kicked out or killed. And now, an Apartheid wall is built, cutting through Palestinian lands.
Of course, Israeli actions created Palestinian reaction and resistance both violent and non-violent. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was created in 1964 in order to liberate Palestinian lands and return the refugees. Just like many other desperate people with their backs against a wall, the PLO resorted to guerrilla warfare and tactics, such as bombings, hijackings, and assassinations that caused casualties among Israeli civilians. Other people have used similar methods such as Algerian fighters in their war of Independence against France, or the French resistance against the Nazi occupation. Whether or not these tactics were useful in furthering the Palestinian cause is another matter. There were non-violent resistance against the occupation as well, namely, the first Intifada (shaking off in Arabic) or uprising from 1987 to 1993, which poised the unarmed Palestinian youth against the mighty Israeli army which brutally responded to this uprising. One disturbing image from this time period is the Israeli soldiers breaking the bones of captured teenage Palestinian demonstrators with rocks. Most Arab governments gave lip service in support of the Palestinian resistance and one cannot deny their hypocrisy, corruption, and sometimes anti-Jewish policies. There were only a few countries in the world that truly supported the Palestinians. This discussion will be continued in the next issue.
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