Gaza Rhymes: Bombs, Pain And The Resistance
By V. Arun Kumar
11 July, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Let me begin with the strong condemnation of the killing of three innocent Israeli children; Eyal Yifrach, (19 yrs) Naftali Fraenkel (16 yrs), Gil-Ad Shaer (15 yrs). All three youngsters were on a hitchhiking trip when they were abducted on June 12, 2014. On June 30, their bodies were found in a field north-west of Hebron. Israel was quick to blame Hamas for the abduction and killing of three youngsters. Hamas senior membership has denied any role in the brutal murder.
So, who killed these three youngsters? Whether they were killed by Hamas in an orchestrated attack or in an opportunistic attack by some low ranking Hamas members or some hatred filled Palestinians, no justification can be given for the brutal murder. No essence of resistance or revolution can justify the cold blooded murder of these three Israeli children. This part of the story will not end here; it will end only when the real culprits are booked.
On the other hand, the larger story is one which began on the Nakba Day in 1948, the story of Israeli aggression and oppression of Palestine. The part of the story mentioned above (of the three Israeli children) didn’t initiate a chain reaction against Palestinians, but it just accelerated the aggression which Israel has been doing for past six decades. This time the onslaught begins with members of a right wing Jewish group killing a Palestinian teenager in the ‘revenge attack’.
Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a 16 year old Palestinian became the last victim of this part of the story. He was kidnapped by right wing Israelis and brutally assaulted and later burned alive. The Israeli government issued a token condolence and asked its citizens not to take the law in their own hands. Soon after, Israeli forces took over the responsibility of ‘revenge ‘from the right wing Jewish group and began killing Palestinian children in the name of “punishing” Hamas leadership.
Rest is as usual. Beginning with air strikes on “terrorist targets” and then moving towards ground invasion, Israel forces will destroy whatever is left in Gaza. As Mark Twain had once said “history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhymes”. The history of the larger story i.e. the history of Palestine rhymes - with the sound of bombs dropped by Israeli aircrafts and cries of grieving Palestinian mothers. In a gap of every three or four years, Israel finds some justification for bombing and invading Gaza/West Bank, and before ending the campaign it ensures that everything razed to the ground.
Apart from strengthening the apartheid and hatred against Palestinians in the minds of the Israeli people under the veil of patriotism, this periodic aggression helps the Israeli state in two ways. One, it helps in creating a constant fear psychosis among Palestinians. Second, it helps in testing the new and innovated weapons which Israel produces. Israeli weapon industry is one of the most important sectors and its single biggest buyer is Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Israel is also one of the major arms exporters accounting for almost 10% of the world’s total. Remember, Eisenhower’s “Military-Industrial Complex” (MIC)? Eisenhower had warned that MIC will be a major impulse for the conflicts in the future. Apart from the hatred that Israeli state brews against Palestinians, what pushes Israeli state to regularly call for a major attack on Gaza/West Bank is the need of its defence industry to check that its weapons are working well.
Coming back to the larger story, today Israel is once again bombing Gaza. And once again the world leaders are enjoying the show of Israel’s innovative weapons on the testing grounds of Gaza and thinking- which one to buy for their military forces. And symbolically to fulfil their ‘responsibility’ to ensure ‘peace’ in the world, the world leaders issue statements calling for ceasefire. For the people of Gaza, it’s again another round of increased agony and destruction. In Plato’s sense - in Gaza “only the dead have seen the end of the war.”
In Gaza, history rhymes. The aggression of Israel rhymes, the sound of bombs dropped by Israeli aircrafts rhymes and the agony of Palestinians rhymes. And so does the great Palestinian resistance against oppression rhymes, which rhymes in a musical tone of struggle and hope. One day Palestine will be free!
Let me end with the names of Palestinian children (among 83 other people) killed by Israeli forces in past 6 days (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/09/these-are-the-names-of-13-children-killed-in-gaza):
1. Mohammed Malkiyeh, 1½ years old
2. Yasmin Mohammed al-Mutawwaq, 4
3. Seraj Ayad Abed al-A’al, 8
4. Mohammed Ayman Ashour, 15
5. Hussein Yousef Kawareh, 13
6. Bassim Salim Kawareh, 10
7. Mousa Habib, 16
8. Dunia Mehdi Hamad, 16
9. Amir Areef, 13
10. Ibrahim Masri, 14
11. Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra, 4, arrived at the hospital “in shreds.”
12. Nidal Khalaf al-Nawasra, a child of unreported age
13. Ranim Jawde Abdel Ghafour, a young girl
14. Maryam Atieh Muhammad al-Arja, 11
15. Abdullah Ramadan Abu Ghazzal, 5
How many more will have to die before Israeli’s present hunger get satisfied for the moment?
V. Arun Kumar is a left wing activist and a post graduate in International Relations from South Asian University, New Delhi. Arun can be contacted at [email protected] or www.facebook.com/arun.worldpeace
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