THE ISRAELI OFFENSIVE IN GAZA: CON: Israel is at war with citizens of Gaza
By Lesley Cissell Abukhater, Issa Ackall
From News Services
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
At the onslaught of Israel’s air offensive, Israel’s consul general for the Southeastern United States pointed out that 2008 was the 60th year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ambassador Mansour wrote that this is “the time for the international community to assert its right to live free from terror and fight back.”
We’d like to remind him that 2008 is also the 60th anniversary of what we call “al-Nakhbeh” which roughly translated means “the Great Tragedy” —- the emptying of vast swatches of Palestine by members of Israel’s Stern and Urgun gangs, among others. This disaster resulted in more than three-quarters of a million Palestinians becoming refugees and the country of Palestine being wiped off world maps.
Sixty years later these refugees, many of whom live in Gaza, would like nothing better than to “live free from terror” but Israeli bombs and tanks are bearing down on them in a completely disproportionate attempt by Israel to fight back against Hamas rocket launches. By Tuesday, fewer than a dozen Israelis were dead compared to nearly 600 Palestinians.
We recognize that Hamas has much responsibility for these events. The militant party has made no secret of its desire not to make peace with Israel.
We also know better than most readers the fear Israeli citizens of Ashdod, Sderot, Gadera and other towns feel. We lived in Jerusalem during the Gulf War and remember the horror of SCUD missiles we thought were carrying chemical weapons. In the moments when one’s 3-year-old child stares back at you through the eye sockets of a gas mask, all politics and national struggles cease to exist. It’s about the life of your child, be she Israeli or Palestinian.
Israel asserts that it is targeting only Hamas militants, yet many in Hamas were elected to positions in the government of Gaza and, therefore, Israel is at war with the citizens of Gaza who elected these militants to office.
With 1.5 million people crammed into the most densely populated strip on earth —- basically Tucker and Chamblee —- Israel has no bomb smart enough to target only Hamas “terrorists.”
Israel’s defense for its war is its claim that by destroying the infrastructure Hamas built, it will somehow destroy Hamas’ influence in Gaza.
Let’s see. So far conflict has caused, aside from the deaths, the loss of electricity and water, and seriously threatened the food supply. We’re having trouble seeing the leap in logic that Gazan mothers —- who cannot protect, feed, bathe or warm their children —- would have to take to blame Hamas for their suffering.
As we close the second week of the war all sides appear stubbornly inflexible. Israel continues its ground invasion and Hamas vows to defend Gaza “to the last standing soul.” The final result can only be more bloodshed and death.
We want to hope in change: in U.S. pressure on Israel to execute a proportional response; in U.S. pressure on Egypt to relieve the humanitarian crisis by allowing the free flow of people and goods across its Rafah border; in U.S. openness to the Palestinian people’s duly-elected representatives; in balanced media coverage of the conflict that points to numerical disparities and gives a view of Palestinians to whom Americans can relate.
What we need now is an immediate cease-fire and a lasting, two-state peace brokered by a credible third party. We hope President-elect Barack Obama will prove to be just that.
> Lesley Cissell Abukhater is a writer working on a memoir about her 10 years living in the West Bank and Gaza. Issa Ackall is a U.S. government employee and president of the Atlanta chapter of The Ramallah Federation.
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