finkelstein Norman - This Time We Went Too Far.pdf - Ebooki w jezyku angielskim - dwlodek

FOREWORD

Alongside many others I have devoted much of my adult life to

the achievement of a just peace between Israel and Palestine. It

cannot be said that Palestinians living under occupation have

derived much beneﬁ t from these eﬀ orts. The Israeli juggernaut

proved unstoppable. The changes that have occurred have only

been for the worse. Under the guise of what is called the “peace

process” Israel has eﬀ ectively annexed wide swaths of the West

Bank and shredded the social fabric of Palestinian life there and

in the Gaza Strip.

It would nonetheless be unduly pessimistic to say that no

progress has been made. Israel can no longer count on reﬂ exive

support for its policies. Public opinion polls not only outside

but also inside Jewish communities around the world over the

past decade reveal a growing unease with Israeli conduct. This

shi largely stems from the fact that the public is now much

be er informed. Historians have dispelled many of the myths

Israel propagated to justify its dispossession and displacement

of Palestine’s indigenous population; human rights organiza-

tions have exposed Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians liv-

ing under occupation; and a consensus has crystallized in the

legal-diplomatic arena around a se lement of the conﬂ ict that

upholds the basic rights of Palestinians.

The simmering discontent with Israeli conduct reached

boiling point in December 2008 when Israel invaded Gaza. The

merciless Israeli assault on a defenseless civilian population

evoked widespread shock and disgust. Deep ﬁ ssures opened

up in the Jewish communities, especially among the younger

generations. Many of Israel’s erstwhile supporters who did not

vocally dissent chose to remain silent rather than defend the

indefensible.

The ﬁ rst part of this book analyzes the motives behind

Israel’s assault on Gaza and chronicles what Amnesty Interna-

tional called “22 days of death and destruction.” The least that

we owe the people of Gaza is an accurate record of the suﬀ ering

they endured. No one can bring back the dead or restore the

sha ered lives of those who survived, but we can still respect

the memory of their sacriﬁ ce by preserving it intact.

This book is not just a lament, however; it also sets forth

grounds for hope. The bloodle ing in Gaza has roused the

world’s conscience. The prospects have never been more pro-

pitious for galvanizing the public not just to mourn but also to

act. We have truth on our side, and we have justice on our side.

These become mighty weapons once we have learned how to

wield them eﬀ ectively. The challenge now is twofold: to mas-

ter, and inform the public of, the unvarnished record of what

happened in Gaza; and then to mobilize the public around a

se lement of the conﬂ ict that all of enlightened opinion has

embraced—but that Israel and the United States, standing in

virtual isolation, have rejected. It is my hope that this book will

help meet this challenge and, ultimately, enable everyone, Pal-

estinian and Israeli, to live a digniﬁ ed life.

1/ SELF-DEFENSE

Question:

What do you feel is the most acceptable

solution to the Palestine problem?

Mahatma Gandhi:

The abandonment wholly by the Jews

of terrorism and other forms of violence.

(1 June 1947) 1

On 29 November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly

approved a resolution dividing British-mandated Palestine into

a Jewish state incorporating 56 percent of Palestine and an Arab

state incorporating 44 percent of it. 2 In the ensuing war the

newly born State of Israel expanded its borders to incorporate

nearly 80 percent of Palestine. The only areas of Palestine not

conquered comprised the West Bank, which the Kingdom of

Jordan subsequently annexed, and the Gaza Strip, which came

under Egypt’s administrative control. Approximately 250,000

Palestinians driven out of their homes during the 1948 war and

its a ermath ﬂ ed to Gaza and overwhelmed the indigenous

population of some 80,000.

Today 80 percent of Gaza’s inhabitants consist of refugees

from the 1948 war and their descendants, and more than half

of the population is under 18 years of age. Its current 1.5 million

inhabitants are squeezed into a sliver of land 25 miles long and

ﬁ ve miles wide, making Gaza one of the most densely popu-

lated places in the world. The panhandle of the Sinai Peninsula,

Gaza is bordered by Israel on the north and east, Egypt on the

south, and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. In the course of

its four-decade-long occupation beginning in June 1967, and

prior to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s redeployment of Israeli

troops from inside Gaza to its perimeter in 2005, Israel had

imposed on Gaza a uniquely exploitive regime of “de-develop-

ment” that, in the words of Harvard political economist Sara

Roy, deprived “the native population of its most important eco-

nomic resources—land, water, and labor—as well as the inter-

nal capacity and potential for developing those resources.” 3

The road to modern Gaza’s desperate plight is paved with

many previous atrocities, most long forgo en or never known

outside Palestine. A er the cessation of ba leﬁ eld hostilities in

1949, Egypt kept a tight rein on the activity of Fedayeen (Pal-

estinian guerrillas) in Gaza until February 1955, when Israel

launched a bloody cross-border raid into Gaza killing 40 Egyp-

tians. Israeli leaders had plo ed to lure Egypt into war in order

to topple President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the Gaza raid

proved the perfect provocation as armed border clashes esca-

lated. In October 1956 Israel (in collusion with Great Britain

and France) invaded the Egyptian Sinai and occupied Gaza,

which it had long coveted. The prominent Israeli historian

Benny Morris described what happened next:

Many Fedayeen and an estimated 4,000 Egyptian and Palestin-

ian regulars were trapped in the Strip, identiﬁ ed, and rounded

up by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], GSS [General Security Ser-

vice], and police. Dozens of these Fedayeen appear to have been

summarily executed, without trial. Some were probably killed

during two massacres by the IDF troops soon a er the occu-

pation of the Strip. On 3 November, the day Khan Yunis was

conquered, IDF troops shot dead hundreds of Palestinian refu-

gees and local inhabitants in the town. One U.N. report speaks

of “some 135 local residents” and “140 refugees” killed as IDF

finkelstein Norman - This Time We Went Too Far.pdf

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