Why blaming the victim in Israel’s war on Gaza is absurd

The main thrust of Mr Makakala’s writing is to blame the victim.  He also believes that defeating Hamas is Israel’s primary intention.  He is apparently unaware that Israel has been systematically evicting Palestinians from their homes and land for the last 75 years beginning with the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing that begun in 1948 and which evicted 750,000 Palestinians.  That was long before Hamas existed.

The vast majority of remaining Palestinians continue to live under a cruel military regime denounced worldwide as apartheid.  These aspects of Israeli rule failed to be noticed in his article.  Israel’s denunciations and hatred for Hamas are a cover for its determination to ethnically cleanse Gaza.  Donald Trump has declared Gaza to be prime Mediterranean coastal development property at the United States’ disposal.

It can hardly be described as a “war” when Hamas has no navy, no air force, no nuclear weapons (as Israel has) and Israel controls Gaza’s water, electricity, petroleum, and virtually everything imported into Gaza.  It is more commonly described worldwide as a “genocide”, which is a word, along with “apartheid”, that Mr Makakala seems not have come across in his studies of the conflict.  Who is the morally bankrupt one here? 

Hamas, initially funded in its early existence by Israel as an attempt to divide Palestinians politically, became a militant anti-zionist resistance militia, fighting Israeli oppression. Israel and Western powers now try to demonise Hamas as “Muslim terrorists”.  Mr Makakala calls on Hamas to surrender to save the lives of Palestinians.  Would his call to Lebanon, Syria and Iran be the same when Israel rains bombs down on them?

When Israel rains bombs down on innocent Palestinian men, women and children, killing more than 60,000 (likely more than 100,000), he blames Hamas.  As if the victim is morally responsible for provoking the aggressor into an even more savage aggression.  It is true that today Gaza is a hellhole.  However, history is showing clearly that Israel will never “neutralise” Hamas, it will never defeat the resilient heroic people of Palestine.

“Wars end when someone bows”?  In reference to Northern Ireland and South Africa, I am sure that the suggestion that “…armed groups laid down their weapons when the costs of violence ...” could not be found in any modern African textbook.  The African continent could not have liberated itself from the colonial powers without armed struggle.  In fact, it is South Africa and Ireland that have led the way to charging Israel, in the International Court of Justice, with genocide.

Israel is guilty!  The population of Western countries is less than 15 percent of the world’s population but they think they are the majority, that they have the truth, they have intelligence and power and Israel is their darling.  Yet Israel failed to achieve any of its objectives in its attack on Iran.

It is Israel that is on the brink of collapse.  It claimed invincibility but Iranian and Yemeni missiles from far away could hit targets across Israel.  It needed US and British help to survive Iranian blitzes.  The US and Israel bombed Iran and Yemen, but both countries remain defiant.  Israel’s economy is in ruins, many Israelis are packing up and leaving Israel (often utilising their US, European or British passports).

Worse still for Israel, its savagery has been witnessed by people around the world, its brand name is irrevocably defiled, it is a pariah state, and it is rapidly losing support with the US population as well as among Jews internationally (on whose behalf it claims to exist and act).

The slogans heard at protests, echoing around the world, are apt – “Free, free Palestine!”

Alan Musry is a reader based in Dar es Salaam. [email protected]