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Hope for Peace in a Seemingly Hopeless Situation
By Dr Abdul Jabbar
San Francisco, CA

Rightly criticizing both sides for the current situation in Gaza, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the UN Security Council on October 24, 2023, with these words: “To ease epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer, and facilitate the release of hostages, I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.” He criticized Israel’s siege and bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for the October 7th attack by Hamas, which killed over 1,300 Israelis:

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum… But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas, and those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

“ A Textbook Case of Genocide”

In Jewish Currents dated October 13, 2023, Ras Segal wrote an article that he titled “ A Textbook Case of Genocide: Israel has been explicit about what it’s carrying out in Gaza. Why isn’t the world listening?” Segal, an Israeli historian, is an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University and the endowed professor in the study of modern genocide. He based his warning on facts on the ground. Israel’s targeting and killing of civilians, reducing Gaza to rubble by bombing hospitals, mosques, schools in addition to homes and businesses, shutting off water supply, food, fuel, electricity, humanitarian aid, and other survival necessities, their leaders’ demonizing Palestinians as “evil” and subhuman Nazis, wrong propaganda with fake photos that Hamas has killed Israeli babies are all actions that constitute genocide.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened that Israel’s ongoing attack on Gaza “will reverberate through history.” Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has made his goal explicit: “There can be no forgiveness, only total annihilation of the Hamas organization, its terror infrastructures, everything that has to do with terrorists and whoever sent them. It will take a week, it will take a month, it will take two months, until we eliminate them.”

As reported by Democracy Now, by October 26, 2023, Palestinian death toll has exceeded 7,000 (over 3,000 children), and nearly 15,000 injured. According to Defense of Children International-Palestine, on the average, Israel has killed one Palestinian child every 15 minutes in Gaza since its attack. A doctor reported that 40% of all cases that he has seen have been children who have lost one or both parents. More than 1,500 Palestinians, trapped under the rubble, have died or are dying agonizingly slow deaths . Bulldozers need fuel to operate, and there is no fuel. Indiscriminate Israeli attacks have also killed 29 UNRWA journalists and one Gazan journalist. According to a report of October 20, 2023, by Democracy Now:

“The Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City, which was sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, was struck by an ¼ Israeli airstrike ¼ 18 Christian Palestinians were killed. Part of the 12th century structure ¾ one of the oldest churches in the world ¾ was reduced to rubble.”

Nearly 42% of Palestinian homes have been damaged or destroyed. Expanding its campaign of genocide to the occupied West Bank, an Israeli airstrike on the Nur Shams refugee camp killed 13 Palestinians. Seven of them were children ¾ two of them just 10 years old. Since October 7, Israeli soldiers and settlers have murdered over 100 Palestinians in the West Bank. Human rights groups have reported that heavily armed Israelis from illegal settlements, often backed by Israeli soldiers, have forced Palestinian Bedouin villagers from their West Bank homes, seizing their properties. The number of Palestinian prisoners has doubled since October 7, 2023, from 5,000 to 10,000.

Hitler and the Nazis as Role Models

Prior to starting the pogroms in which thousands of innocent Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps, the Nazis, through sustained and systematic propaganda, killed all empathy for the Jews. They paved the way to the Jewish Holocaust by calling Jews subhuman and dangerous. Similarly, Netanyahu and Israeli Zionists are criminalizing Palestinians by calling them subhuman animals to justify their genocide.

Judith Butler, a professor at University of California, Berkeley, and an advisor to Jewish Voice of Peace, explains the process whereby Palestinians are being systematically dehumanized by Israel, US, and many European governments:

“The Palestinians have been labeled as ungrievable. That is to say, they’re not a group of people whose lives are being considered as worthy of value, of persisting, of flourishing in this world. If they are lost, it is not considered to be a true loss, because they are not just less than human ¼ but a threat to what the idea of the human is that is being defended by Zionist politics, shared by Israel and the US and many Western powers.”

Hitler called his killing of 6 million innocent Jews the “final solution.” Using Hitler’s tactics and language, Netanyahu’s final solution of what he calls the “Palestinian problem” is complete, genocidal elimination of Palestinians from Palestine.

Hitler was able to kill innocent Jews at a time when news could be prevented from getting known to the world. Today that is not the case. Despite many filters and impediments, the news spreads quickly today. Americans, Europeans, and other citizens of the world may not know that the savage history of the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 was soaked in the blood of Palestinians, accurately described by the Jewish Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Today, however, they can see the graphic news footage and take action. They can now demand justice for Palestinians in the form of a viable Palestinian state and enforcement of the UN-mandated law of return to compensate over 700,000 Palestinians, who were driven from their homes in 1948.

Protests in the United States

The world’s justice-loving people and leaders can prevent the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. According to a headline in The New Arab of October 20, 2023, “US State Department [is] facing 'mutiny' over its 'unlimited support' for Israel.” Marita Vlachou, writing for the Huffington Post of October 20, 2023, also reports that “President Joe Biden’s approach to the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine is fueling mounting tensions at the State Department.” Vlachou cited an official’s words that “There’s basically a mutiny brewing within State at all levels.” A senior State Department official resigned as a result of Biden's policies on Israel and Gaza: “Josh Paul, who worked on weapons deals for the department for over 11 years, told HuffPost he had been unable to push successfully for a more humane US policy regarding the conflict.”

In a joint letter, more than 400 congressional staffers have urged the Congress to back a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas: “We have appreciated seeing nearly every Member of Congress express quick and unequivocal solidarity with the Israeli people, but we are profoundly disturbed that such shows of humanity have barely been extended to the Palestinian people.” Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and many other members of the House of Representatives have asked President Biden to arrange an immediate ceasefire and enable critically needed humanitarian relief for the besieged people of Gaza.

The Vast Majority of People in the World Support a Two-State Solution

Two viable and secure states coexisting peacefully is what Palestinians and the world have been hoping for. There can be no denying that Israel will be a secure state only if Palestinians have a viable state, and mutual equality and respect exists between them. True, security cannot come from Israel’s hundreds of atomic bombs and its arsenal of US-given weapons with which it pulverizes at will the defenseless Palestinians. Despite enjoying the military might of a superpower, Israel has repeatedly shown its vulnerability to attacks by Hamas in the south and attacks by Hezbollah in the north. Israel is also surrounded by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, with Iraq and Iran not too far away. If at any time, Israel turns them into deadly enemies, as it has been lately doing, and they unite in a resolve to finish Israel off, that will be a telling setback to Israel.

The security of Israel can never be at the cost of Palestinians, who have had continuous habitation in Palestine for over two thousand years. For 2,000 years up until the founding of the state of Israel in 1947, there were very few Jews in Palestine. After the Romans destroyed their kingdom over two thousand years ago, Jews dispersed all over Europe and acquired their European identity. That fact entitles Palestinians to their land.

So where does this Israeli plan to wipe out Palestinians from Palestine leave us now? Governments are as good or bad as those managing their governance. In a democracy, people have the power to change their governments if they go contrary to the people’s mandate. American people can intensify their efforts to make their government’s foreign policy align with justice and peace. They can do so by electing only those politicians who have a clean track record of pursuing justice. The bottom line is that Israel-Palestine peace is possible only if the US government wants it.

Former US President Jimmy Carter’s prescription for peace comes with a warning in his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid :

“The bottom line is this: Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of a majority of its own citizens ¾ and honor its own previous commitments ¾ by accepting its legal borders. All Arab neighbors must pledge to honor Israel’s right to live in peace under these conditions. The United States is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories” (Carter 216. Italics added for emphasis).

Judith Butler’s View

Judith Butler visualizes the conditions for peace between the two contending parties as follows:

“The fact is, is that the violence that we’re seeing belongs to a long-standing violence, 75-year-old violence, that has been characterized by systematic dislocation, killing, imprisonment, detention, stolen land, damaged lives. We actually need a much fuller political solution to the situation. Until Palestine is free and people in Palestine are able to live as citizens or political actors in a world that they help to craft ¾ they become self-governing, they belong to a democracy ¾ we will continue to see violence. We will continue to see this structural violence producing this kind of resistance.”

Israel’s former Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami Warns That Israel Is Losing its Legitimacy as a State

In a World Post article titled “How Israel Can Escape the Gaza Trap,” former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami offered this assessment of Israel’s precarious position:

“Contrary to what Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu believes, the main existential threat facing the country is not a nuclear-armed Iran. The real peril is to be found at home: the corrosive effect of the Palestinian problem on Israel's international standing. The devastation caused by Israel's periodic asymmetrical confrontations, combined with the continuing occupation of Palestinian lands and the ever-growing expansion of settlements, has fueled a growing campaign to undermine Israel's legitimacy.”

Jewish Israeli Prominent Authors, Journalists, and Peace Activists Call for an Immediate End of the Gaza Blockade

Many Israeli scholars and journalists have falsified Israel’s claim that lifting the Gaza blockade would compromise its security. In “It’s Been a Decade: Open Gaza, the Palestinian Ghetto,” even Israel’s own prestigious newspaper Haaretz rejects the notion that connects Gaza’s blockade with Israel’s security and called for it to be lifted:

“There is no justification for the closure of Gaza. It hasn’t prevented missiles from being fired at Israel. It hasn’t caused the hoped-for public uprising against the Hamas government. And it constitutes an incubator for the development of despair and cycles of violence that have made the lives of residents of southern Israel intolerable.…The Israeli government must immediately end its blockade of Gaza.…This Palestinian ghetto must be opened.” (Haaretz, 17 May 2016)

Time to Move Forward with Congresswoman Betty McCollum’s Bill to Solve This Conflict

Betty McCollum has proposed a historic legislation to prevent Israel from using US taxpayers’ money for human rights violations in the Palestinian territories that it has occupied illegally since 1967. Israel’s abuse of US funds violates the conditions that are to be met by the recipient. Israel receives from US government approximately $ 3 billion per year. On May 5, 2023, McCollum reintroduced the Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act (H.R. 2590) which many other Members of the House of Representatives have also supported. Congresswoman McCollum released the following statement:

“Not $1 of US aid should be used to commit human rights violations, demolish families’ homes, or permanently annex Palestinian lands,” Congresswoman McCollum said.   “The United States provides billions in assistance for Israel's government each year--and those dollars should go toward Israel's security, not toward actions that violate international law and cause harm. Peace can only be achieved when everyone’s human rights are respected, and Congress has a responsibility to not ignore the well-documented mistreatment of Palestinian children and families living under Israeli military occupation.

“Support is growing rapidly for the Palestinian people, who deserve justice, equality, human rights, and the right to self-determination. Prominent civil society groups, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Muslim organizations have signed on in support of this bill—because we all agree that no Palestinian child and no Jewish child should go to bed at night fearing ongoing violence. There is a path to a peaceful future, and it requires leading with our US values of democracy and equal justice for all.”

Joining Rep McCollum as Original Cosponsors: Rep Don Beyer (VA-08), Rep Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Rep Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Rep Donald Payne Jr. (NJ-10), Rep Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Rep Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Rep Raúl Grijalva (AZ-03), Rep Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Rep Mark Pocan (WI-02), Rep Cori Bush (MO-01), Rep Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Rep Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (IL-04), Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Rep Barbara Lee (CA-12), Rep Summer Lee (PA-12), Rep Dwight Evans (PA-03).

The following information is taken from McCollum’s website:

https://mccollum.house.gov/HR-2590

  • “Millions of Palestinians have lived their entire lives under the systemic oppression of Israel’s military occupation.
  • “Israel is a US ally and for the past 25 years, Congress has focused on providing Israel security funding while passing resolutions supporting a two-state solution. During this time, Israel has been strategically expanding settlements, committing flagrant violations of human rights against Palestinian children and families, and aggressively undermining any prospects for a Palestinian state.” 
  • “US assistance intended for Israel’s security should foster peace and must never be used to violate the human rights of children, demolish the homes of Palestinian families, or to permanently annex Palestinian lands. 
  • “The Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act prohibits US taxpayer funding to the Government of Israel from being used for 1) the military detention, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention; 2) supporting the seizure and destruction of Palestinian property and homes in violation of international humanitarian law; and, 3) any support or assistance for Israel’s unilateral annexation of Palestinian territory in violation of international humanitarian law.
  • “The Secretary of State is required to certify annually to Congress that foreign aid to Israel does not violate any of the outlined prohibited uses.

“The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to submit an annual report to Congress detailing the expenditure of US taxpayer funds by Israel for “off-shore procurement” and compliance with Congressionally mandated requirements. The goal of this provision is transparency and accountability for the expenditure of US foreign aid.”

Hope for Peace

Despite this very gloomy, tragic, and seemingly hopeless situation, one still needs to cling to the tiny sliver of hope. Human beings are capable of changing for the better. The renowned American scholar and intellectual Noam Chomsky’s words are encouraging: “Pretty much everything turns on a change in US policy ¼ Those of us inside the United States can influence policy. No one else can. If any change is going to take place in Palestine, there will have to be change here. ¼ It’s hard work, but it’s possible.” American grassroot movements, Congressional leaders like Betty McCollum’s proposed bill, strong disagreement inside the State Department with US government’s blind support of Israel’s assault on Gaza, and a demand for justice to Palestinians by many human rights organizations based in the United States are all emblems of hope.

(Dr Abdul Jabbar is an Emeritus Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies at City College of San Francisco and a former Visiting Professor of English at University of California, Berkeley. Recipient of a Fulbright scholarship and two National Endowment for the Humanities awards, he received his PhD in English from Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio. He is the author of three books and many articles on literary, political, and similar topics. He has taught a course titled "Politics of the Middle East" with focus on the Israel/Palestine conflict at City College of San Francisco for 15 years.)