The New Nation - Internet Edition

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, when over 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in a systematic campaign. Jewish forces seized 78 per cent of British Mandate Palestine to create the state of Israel. By 1967, Israel launched its third major war of aggression, invading and occupying Gaza and the West Bank, including all of Jerusalem. Since then, the Palestinians have been forced to endure the most appalling repression under military occupation, being subject to almost daily bombardment, massacres, destruction of homes and farms and illegal settlement on their land, all in contempt of international law.

Gaza has been subjected to a crippling siege since Israel's supposed withdrawal from the region over two years ago. The economic blockade is destroying power plants, schools and civilian infrastructure, whilst cutting off basic fuel supplies. The serious restriction on movement within, to and from the Occupied Territories has led Gaza to be commonly described as the world's largest open-air prison. This month, a coalition of British aid agencies and human rights groups described Gaza as suffering its worst humanitarian crisis since the Occupation.

This already very beleaguered Gaza was subjected this month to another Israeli military onslaught involving tanks, helicopter gunships and missile-firing airborne drones, in which over 100 Palestinians were massacred, half of whom were civilians, and a quarter of whom were children. All this was in response to Hamas rocket fire which killed one Israeli civilian. Israel's Deputy Defence Minister, Matan Vilnai's threat of a "shoah" or holocaust against the Palestinians was realised. In some cases civilians were deliberately targeted: the killing of the six-month-old baby Muhammad al-Bur'i, at the family's home in the Rimal section of Gaza, occurred amidst the shelling of the nearby Interior Ministry building- a civilian target. This response was not so much disproportionate, as vindictive. Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, however, didn't feel the need to criticise the Israeli response at all, let alone condemn it.

The coalition of British NGOs urged the UK and EU to condemn the blockade and called on former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, representing the Middle East Quartet, to break his silence and make a statement on the extent of the humanitarian crisis. Other recommendations by the humanitarian groups include engagement with the Hamas, which has been subjected to an international boycott since winning the Palestinian parliamentary elections two years ago. Their appeal follows a report by John Dugard, the UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights in the occupied territories, in which he described Palestinian terrorism as the "inevitable consequence" of Israeli occupation and laws that resemble apartheid.

The 60 years of injustices against the Palestinians has been littered by series of peace initiatives, which have not only resulted in abject failure but used as a excuse for Israel to maintain its illegal occupation. From Madrid to Oslo, the Hebron and Wye River agreements, to the so-called 2002 Road to Peace and more recent Annapolis last November. The progression has supposedly focused on a two-state solution. But all have increasingly been based upon appeasing Israeli belligerence, despite it being recognised as the greatest threat to world peace and stability.

For our Foreign Secretary to insist that Israel's right to security and self-defense is "clear and must be reiterated and supported" in the wake of the latest massacres is nothing short of obscene. It is a bewildering twist of balance in Britain's claimed neutrality towards the Middle East conflict. Deliberately omitted is not only Israel's blatant defiance of international law but its illegal military occupation that has extended to produce the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It is beyond any sense of morality to impose an ever-crippling economic blockade, destroy power plants, schools and other civilian infrastructure, while cutting off basic fuel supplies.

It seems Israel will continue to occupy Palestinian territories and more innocent lives will continue be lost on both sides. Only the US can put a stop to this. Whether the new President will be brave enough to bring about a change only time will tell. Meanwhile, the imprisoned Palestinians will continue to suffer.

(Source: Muslim News, London)