Israel's war against the Palestinians did not begin on October 7, 2023, but 100 years ago
By Rachad Antonius
The author is an associate professor at UQAM. Published on Oct. 27, 2023 in Le Devoir
A curious amnesia strikes some representatives of the Canadian and Quebec political class. To listen to them, one would think that the history of the conflict in the Middle East began on October 7, 2023. The media often reflect this perception. Most discussions on one or another aspect of the conflict inevitably begin with "since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7...".
But in this conflict, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said, we must put things in their historical context. This violence is taking place within the framework of a hundred-year war aimed at the appropriation of Palestine and the expulsion of its indigenous inhabitants.
The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has lasted for 56 years. It is a military occupation, maintained by the violence of the occupying army. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA , between 2008 and September 2023, before the Hamas attack of October 7, there were 6,407 Palestinians killed and 308 Israelis killed. That is 20 times more Palestinians killed than Israelis.
When there are no or few Israeli casualties and only Palestinians are killed, the mainstream media speaks of a "calm." The deaths of Palestinian civilians generally do not make headlines, nor do the destroyed homes, the imprisonment of hundreds of minors without charge, the raids by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages and the destruction they cause to centuries-old olive trees under the protection of their army, etc.
The humiliation is a daily occurrence. Several Israeli human rights organizations document these violations in detail. Their reports are largely ignored by the international press. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called this system “apartheid,” a hidden aspect of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.
Let those who doubt this listen to the testimony of Dr. Gabor Maté , a Jewish Canadian physician and Holocaust survivor.
“I visited the occupied territories […] during the first Intifada. I cried every day for two weeks because of what I saw. The brutality of the occupation, the petty harassment, its murderous nature. The burning or cutting down of Palestinian olive groves, the denial of water rights, the humiliations. And it continues. And the situation is much worse than it was then.”
But the empathy of some politicians is rather selective.
This violence is part of a global project of appropriation of the land of Palestine by European Jewish immigrants first, who were joined, sometimes against their will, by Jews from elsewhere, to the detriment of the indigenous inhabitants, the Palestinians.
This is a century-old project, well documented by Israeli historians such as Ilan Pappe (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Fayard, 2008). In the war that followed the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, 75% of Palestinians were expelled from their villages and homes, and were never allowed by Israel to return, despite UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which confirmed their right of return. This first phase of ethnic cleansing was followed by a second, less significant phase in the 1967 war.
It seems that the most recent war against the Palestinians in Gaza is aimed at continuing this ethnic cleansing, by violently forcing the Palestinians to leave northern Gaza permanently. Gabor Maté continues: “… it would not have been possible to create this exclusive Jewish state without expelling or oppressing the local population. This is the longest ethnic cleansing operation of the 20th and 21st centuries. It continues to this day.”
It is the forgetting of this history that is the basis of the selective indignation in the face of the war crime committed by Hamas on the famous October 7. The war that is taking place before our eyes is not between Israel and Hamas, as the Israeli narrative, which has become dominant among political and media elites in Canada, Quebec and France, would have it. The extent of the violence and the identity of the victims clearly show that this is not a war between Hamas and Israel, but rather a war against all Palestinians.
It is this context that is sorely lacking in the current debate, and that Antonio Guterres wanted to recall. He will undoubtedly have a political price to pay for having demonstrated moral integrity. But it is the civilian population of Gaza that will pay the highest price, because Israel has already begun to suffocate the population of Gaza even more, to “punish” the UN for not having fully adhered to its colonial discourse.
apartheid Gaza jews ethnic cleansing UN Palestine Palestinians
The author is an associate professor at UQAM. Published on Oct. 27, 2023 in Le Devoir
A curious amnesia strikes some representatives of the Canadian and Quebec political class. To listen to them, one would think that the history of the conflict in the Middle East began on October 7, 2023. The media often reflect this perception. Most discussions on one or another aspect of the conflict inevitably begin with "since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7...".
But in this conflict, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said, we must put things in their historical context. This violence is taking place within the framework of a hundred-year war aimed at the appropriation of Palestine and the expulsion of its indigenous inhabitants.
The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has lasted for 56 years. It is a military occupation, maintained by the violence of the occupying army. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA , between 2008 and September 2023, before the Hamas attack of October 7, there were 6,407 Palestinians killed and 308 Israelis killed. That is 20 times more Palestinians killed than Israelis.
When there are no or few Israeli casualties and only Palestinians are killed, the mainstream media speaks of a "calm." The deaths of Palestinian civilians generally do not make headlines, nor do the destroyed homes, the imprisonment of hundreds of minors without charge, the raids by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages and the destruction they cause to centuries-old olive trees under the protection of their army, etc.
The humiliation is a daily occurrence. Several Israeli human rights organizations document these violations in detail. Their reports are largely ignored by the international press. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called this system “apartheid,” a hidden aspect of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.
Let those who doubt this listen to the testimony of Dr. Gabor Maté , a Jewish Canadian physician and Holocaust survivor.
“I visited the occupied territories […] during the first Intifada. I cried every day for two weeks because of what I saw. The brutality of the occupation, the petty harassment, its murderous nature. The burning or cutting down of Palestinian olive groves, the denial of water rights, the humiliations. And it continues. And the situation is much worse than it was then.”
But the empathy of some politicians is rather selective.
This violence is part of a global project of appropriation of the land of Palestine by European Jewish immigrants first, who were joined, sometimes against their will, by Jews from elsewhere, to the detriment of the indigenous inhabitants, the Palestinians.
This is a century-old project, well documented by Israeli historians such as Ilan Pappe (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Fayard, 2008). In the war that followed the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, 75% of Palestinians were expelled from their villages and homes, and were never allowed by Israel to return, despite UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which confirmed their right of return. This first phase of ethnic cleansing was followed by a second, less significant phase in the 1967 war.
It seems that the most recent war against the Palestinians in Gaza is aimed at continuing this ethnic cleansing, by violently forcing the Palestinians to leave northern Gaza permanently. Gabor Maté continues: “… it would not have been possible to create this exclusive Jewish state without expelling or oppressing the local population. This is the longest ethnic cleansing operation of the 20th and 21st centuries. It continues to this day.”
It is the forgetting of this history that is the basis of the selective indignation in the face of the war crime committed by Hamas on the famous October 7. The war that is taking place before our eyes is not between Israel and Hamas, as the Israeli narrative, which has become dominant among political and media elites in Canada, Quebec and France, would have it. The extent of the violence and the identity of the victims clearly show that this is not a war between Hamas and Israel, but rather a war against all Palestinians.
It is this context that is sorely lacking in the current debate, and that Antonio Guterres wanted to recall. He will undoubtedly have a political price to pay for having demonstrated moral integrity. But it is the civilian population of Gaza that will pay the highest price, because Israel has already begun to suffocate the population of Gaza even more, to “punish” the UN for not having fully adhered to its colonial discourse.
apartheid Gaza jews ethnic cleansing UN Palestine Palestinians
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