Anne sent me this response to an article I published. I hope she doesn’t mind me putting it up here. I will address it after.
Hi Opher, I realised you were away, celebrating your birthday when I posted this reply to a piece on your blog. Now, presumably, it’s too long ago for you to have noticed it. I would appreciate a comment on it, from you, though.I wonder where you stand? I was confused when I read this That’s why I’ve taken so long to reply. I couldn’t be sure how much was ‘our extreme right wing friend’ and how much was you. As you know, I am very committed to the struggle of Palestinians. I do not believe ‘Israel’ has any right to defend itself. The UN should never have made it into a country. The UK set the whole thing in motion with the Balfour Declaration (although that did state that Palestinians should not be displaced, or lose their rights).. The UK gave up its mandate because of a terrorist campaign by Zionists, and abstained in the vote that gave ‘Israel’ statehood. Ever since ‘Israel’ declared independence, it has displaced, killed, raped, imprisoned and humiliated Palestinians. I would not object to Jews being in Palestine, but only as part of a state where everyone was free and equal. They are almost all immigrants, or descended from immigrants. Palestinuans have been there all the time. The claims written in that old book they call the Bible aren’t worth the paper they are written on. It was in response to the horrible treatment Palestinians have suffered since 1948 that October 7th happened. That doesn’t justify it, but it does explain it. I am sure it was supposed to be a hostage-taking exercise, not what it turned out to be. The question of how many Jews were killed, and by whom, is still open. Many of us believe ‘the Hannibal Directive’ cost many lives. There is also the question of why one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world was so easily breached. At the very least, the IDF had been told there was no real threat and they could relax. At the worst: who knows? Hamas had not held elections for many years. When they were elected, there was a bitter struggle with the Palestinian Authority, which led to a severing of political relations. However, Hamas was a functioning civil authority as well as a militant organisation. It ran hospitals, police, schools and all infrastructure. It did not need to be bombed out of existence. ‘Israel’ has shown that it can assassinate people without much collateral damage. They could have killed the military leaders without flattening the country. ‘Israel’ only needs to defend itself because it has stolen the land of the indigenous people. Before the Zionists came to power, and before the huge waves of immigration after WWII (much of them brought about by ‘Israel!’ appealing to Jews worldwide, who were not refugees, to come to build the country) Jews and Muslims got along fairly well in Palestine. What ‘Israel’ seems to be doing is using Hamas as an excuse for a shameless land-grab – part of the ‘Greater Israel Project’. In short, I believe that the only viable solution is a single state one, with all people having equal rights. That would need to be very firmly controlled by an international peacekeeping force. That’s a pipedream It almost certainly won’t happen, but I can’t see anything else working.
Enter
Anne
It was this piece you posted on 21st May. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ajw83bYEE/
Here’s what I think:
a. Israel has no historical claim to the land.
b. Referring to ancient religious documents to justify taking land is absurd. It’s like Britain claiming the USA and Australia but even more ridiculous. Religion is a manmade fantasy to my mind. It can’t be used to justify anything. We might as well lay claim to France because of King Arthur and Merlin the wizard. The Old Testament is as much fairy tale in my view. It is no justification for stealing land. There is no legitimacy.
c. However, nearly all nations are built on conquest. Israel is no exception. They took the land by force and I believe that enough time has passed; they should be recognised as a sovereign country.
d. I believe the Palestinians, who owned the land, and have been displaced should now be properly compensated. I do not believe there will be an end to this conflict until that has been done.
e. I believe the Palestinians have been treated harshly, made into 2nd class citizens and have been subjected to racism. This long-term abuse is part of the problem.
f. I believe the war run by Hamas, with rockets and attacks on Israeli citizens is not the way to go. Hamas is a terrorist organisation and while I can understand the anger I cannot condone it.
g. I believe the attack by Hamas on on October 7th 2023 (from the accounts I have read) was barbaric and cannot be justified. Hamas should immediately return all hostages. Whether there was Israeli collusion (In order to justify the destruction of Gaza) is open to investigation. What Hamas did in killing, raping and torturing was disgusting.
h. I believe Israel has justification in going for Hamas.
I. I do not believe they are justified in going for hospitals, schools, refugee camps or civilian areas. These are war crimes.
J. I believe that deliberately withholding food, water and medicine as weapons of war against civilians is barbaric, definite war crimes and amounts to genocide.
K. I believe Netanyahu and his extreme cabinet are war criminals and their actions are fascist to the extreme. They should be tried for their crimes. They put all Palestinians in the same category (as terrorist Hamas supporters) and that justifies killing them all in their eyes.
L. I believe in a negotiated two nation solution with land and reparation given to the Palestinian people. The alternative – a single-nation state, based on complete equality, is nigh-on impossible given the level of hatred on both sides.
M. I believe violence on both sides is wrong. Negotiation and reparation are the only way forward.
N. I believe Trump has made things worse by empowering Netanyahu to do as he pleases. Netanyahu is being used by extreme religious groups and has to keep going at war to hold his fascist coalition together and keep himself out of court.
O. I believe the UN needs to step in.
P. I believe that violence perpetuates more violence; death generates hate and we are locked in a cycle of revenge.
