The ethnic cleansing of the West Bank
While western politicians and media pursue imaginary ‘antisemites’, they continue to ignore or excuse the murderous crimes of Israel.
While the zionists and their imperialist backers, including ‘liberal’ imperialists, have been searching every nook and cranny to look for signs of antisemitism in the most unlikely of quarters, they studiously avert their gaze from the elephant in the room – namely, the daily and hourly crimes committed by the racist zionist state of Israel against the occupied and oppressed Palestinian people, whose cruel treatment at the hands of the Israeli army, police and settlers cannot fail to arouse indignation and disgust on the part of ordinary people (jews and non-jews alike) who have not lost all sense of decency and humanity.
Here are just a few examples of the infamies heaped on the Palestinians and anyone who dares to defend their rights to dignity and self-determination.
So as to intimidate Palestinians into leaving their homes and land, Israel has declared several areas of the West Bank to be ‘military zones’ – one of the zionist state’s many devices for effecting ethnic cleansing. No house, no farm in these areas is exempt from intrusions by Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night.
What is more, in these areas whole villages that have been in place since long before the establishment of Israel are regularly razed to the ground and their inhabitants left homeless. Those such as the chief rabbi in Britain who are busting their blood vessels denouncing the completely fictitious antisemitism of Jeremy Corbyn have ne’er a word to say in condemnation of ethnic cleansing by Israel on the West Bank, any more than do either the liberal or illiberal bourgeois media, all of which back imperialism’s pet Israeli attack dog regardless of whom it bites or kills.
Israeli soldiers have for quite some time been conducting midnight invasions of Palestinian homes and terrorising their inhabitants, with the sole purpose of instilling “a sense of persecution among the Palestinians”. So say many Israeli soldiers as today they look back with regret on the acts they undertook night after night at the behest of their state.
The testimonies of these soldiers have been compiled in a human rights report by Breaking the Silence, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights entitled ‘A life exposed: military invasions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank’. We recommend everyone to secure this compilation, as well as to read the article by Avner Gvaryahu in Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, entitled When Israeli soldiers invade Palestinian houses at night. (16 December 2020)
The courage and honesty displayed by these Israeli soldiers, and by Ha’aretz, in exposing the stomach-churning doings of the zionist state stand in stark contrast to the mercenary and cowardly defence of these actions by the political representatives and propaganda organs of imperialism, including those that are often referred to as ‘liberal’ and ‘progressive’.
This brings us to the policy pursued by the Guardian, that self-proclaimed defender of ‘free speech’, ‘human rights’ and the ‘rule of law’.
Here is just one example of The Guardian’s total contempt for the rights of the occupied and tortured people of Palestine and its craven and mercenary support for zionism. The paper summarily dismissed columnist Nathan J Robinson for having jokingly posted on Twitter: “Did you know that the US Congress is not allowed to authorise any new spending unless a portion of it is directed towards buying weapons for Israel?” adding for the benefit of those too dim to recognise a joke: “Well, if not actually the law, at least so customary as to be functionally identical.”
In his own words, what followed was that “the moment I irritated defenders of Israel on social media, I was summarily fired from my job as a newspaper columnist”, and further: “I have noticed that a lot of people who are ostensibly pro-free speech have little to say when critics of Israel are met with professional consequences.”
The details of Mr Robinson’s treatment at the hands of the ‘liberal’ imperialist Guardian can be read in full in Current Affairs, the magazine that he edits.
The late anthropologist, David Graebner, who at one time wrote regularly for the Guardian, cut off all connection with the paper during his last years, saying that it used the presence of left-wing writers as a cover for advancing baseless charges of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party. The Guardian shamelessly wielded the weapon of antisemitism in order to defend the Blairite wing of the Labour party and to attack Jeremy Corbyn.
Every day brings news of the brutality and cruelty perpetrated by the zionist state against the occupied Palestinian people. On 8 February 2021, Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian film crew documenting illegal settler activity. Several soldiers joined in the assault. This sort of activity is routine under the occupation regime.
On the Holocaust Remembrance Day (21 January), the Israeli army oversaw and orchestrated the obliteration of over 10,000 trees in the West Bank. This is the latest in a long line of such barbaric activities – over a million trees have similarly been uprooted since 1967. That it should take place on this day of remembrance, while showing complete insensitivity on the part of the zionist authorities, also brings shame and disgrace to ordinary, decent jewish people.
Let chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis address even a mild rebuke to his beloved Israeli masters!
Let the political representatives of US imperialism, who ceaselessly indulge in China-bashing, accusing it of oppressing the muslims of Xinjiang, condemn the Israeli atrocities against Palestinian people, the majority of whom are muslim. These people have the clout to be heard in Tel Aviv, for Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since the second world war. US ‘aid’ makes up 20 percent of Israel’s defence budget.
Since 2018 alone, during the Great March of Return, hundreds of Palestinians, including children and medical professionals, have been shot at by Israeli snipers. On just one day, 14 May 2018, the Israeli army shot and killed seven children and shot at a thousand demonstrators with live ammunition – and with no accountability.
Still the US enthusiastically continues to supply more armaments to Israel, even as it continues to torch and bulldoze mosques, cemeteries, homes and schools; to destroy wells, vehicles and livestock; and to disrupt every aspect of the economic and social life of the Palestinian people, whom it continues to maim, murder and incarcerate in large numbers as well as to blockade.
In the circumstances, one can only conclude that the governments and the media in the imperialist countries, especially in the US and Britain, are complicit in the murderous activity of the zionists.
