The Jan. 26 op-ed piece “The Truth About Gaza” ranks among the less sophisticated propaganda to have emerged since the Israeli government invaded Gaza on Dec. 27.
Due to space constraints, I will simply point out that its basic argument – that “Arab parties to the [Israel-Palestine] conflict have never considered negotiation as an option” – relies almost entirely on evidence from the 1940s and 1950s. The last date cited is 1957, yet the conclusion is categorical.
The author of the piece is wise to sidestep the last 50 years of the conflict. Any decent propagandist learns from the beginning that “the correct historical context” is that which fits his or her preconceived argument while excluding inconvenient information. However, serious observers who wish to understand the present conflict might feel compelled to pay at least some attention to the last half-century of history, which if considered reveals some interesting facts.
The most fundamental of these facts is that the Israeli government has no legal right to occupy Palestinian territory (composed of Gaza and the West Bank), as it has done since 1967. The highest legal and judicial bodies in the world – the United Nations and World Court – have repeatedly condemned the Israeli occupation, starting with U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 in 1967 calling for Israeli withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders. Since then an international consensus encompassing virtually every country except the United States and Israel has supported a peace plan akin to that outlined in Res. 242 and subsequent legal decisions.
This consensus has long included the major Arab governments. Though initially resistant to these terms, the Palestinian leadership has also consistently accepted them since the late 1970s. Most Hamas leaders have also accepted these terms in practice (despite the bellicose language in the party’s charter), offering on multiple occasions to abide by a long-term ceasefire in exchange for an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza and the occupation more generally. Israel, by contrast, has been virtually constant in its rejection of any peace plan that would require it to withdraw from its illegally-occupied territories.
The immediate roots of the ongoing crisis in Gaza go back to summer 2007, when the democratically-elected Hamas party took control of Gaza. Israel – again, with full U.S. backing – sealed the borders of Gaza and severely limited the amount of food, medicine, and other goods going in or out. As the United Nations and numerous human rights agencies have pointed out, by 2008 the Israeli blockade had created (quite deliberately) a severe humanitarian crisis for many of the 1.5 million people living in Gaza. As these same authorities also note, the continued blockade constitutes a flagrant violation of international law (e.g., Articles 33 and 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention).
On Nov. 4, 2008, Israel unilaterally broke a six-month ceasefire with Hamas by invading Gaza. Less than two months later it invaded again, this time killing at least 1,300 people, a third of whom were children, nine Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed by Palestinian fire. This death ratio, of well over 100:1, has been steady in recent years, and frequently applauded by Israeli officials and U.S. politicians and media.
For more on this history and the current situation, readers can consult some of the books and articles listed at http://israel-palestine-readings.blogspot.com. For U.S. citizens, the fact that the U.S. government is the primary military and diplomatic sponsor of Israeli aggression should be cause for much reflection. On the Stony Brook University campus, concerned individuals can join the Social Justice Alliance in working to bring an end to U.S. complicity in Israeli crimes and to promote the terms of the international consensus. The Social Justice Alliance meets Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in the third floor lounge of the SAC.
