As the Israeli-Palestinian war escalates again, global media floods prime time television and websites all over the world. Bombastic headlines show up all day long on our screens, triggering support for what humanity witnessed in Israel on October 7.
Indeed, horrible it was. The attack on civilians was, no doubt, an act of nightmare proportions. At least 1,300 died, many others injured and up to 250 people have been taken hostage.
Politicians, journalists and civilians alike condemned the Palestinian people calling them “terrorists”, “animals”, “inhumane”. They deserve everything that comes their way. Right?
But we seem to have forgotten something. About a century of illegal occupation, displacement, siege of an entire land, inhumane treatment as well as the imprisonment and murder of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Surely, there was a word for that? Genocide.
Let us go back in time. November 2, 1917 – the Balfour Declaration, considered by historians to be one of the main catalysts of the Nakba in 1948 is issued by Britain. Still regarded as one of the most controversial documents in modern history, that declaration promises the establishment of a Jewish State in the land of Palestine.
There are a few problems we face here. The letter calls for a “Jewish national home”, which means nothing in legal terms and has led to much confusion. At the same time, the British had already made three conflicting promises – they promised the Arabs independence, France – a split of the territory between themselves and the UK, and the Jews – the land as their home. A recipe for disaster, I would say.
Let’s jump over to 1919 – we see the “King-Crane commission”, whose mission was to figure out what the Palestinians thought about this. Not surprisingly, it was found that the majority strongly opposed the notion, which led to the US advising a modification of the mandate’s goal. In 1920, the Third Palestinian Congress rejected the Balfour Declaration as a violation of international law.
Fast forward to 1948 – the Nakba – Zionist armed groups, trained by the British army, displaced over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, while imprisoning and even murdering anybody trying to resist.
At that time, the British had already given up responsibility for anything happening in the region, transferring it to the United Nations. One of the proposed solutions, the two-state solution, seemed to shine a glimmer a hope. However, the Israelis pushed Palestinians into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and claimed the rest of the territory for themselves, while forcing thousands of natives to live in refugee camps in their own homeland.
Gaza has been called “the largest open-air prison” by the UN itself. Palestinians living there have had their basic human rights stripped away for years. In the West Bank, the Arabs have been shot, beaten, raped and murdered by Israeli soldiers roaming the cities.
Everyday, terror has crippled the Palestinians while international communities have remained silent and have chosen to continue turning a blind eye to these horrors in order to remain friendly with the heavily US-sponsored Israeli nation.
There is collective punishment in Gaza- Eva Gueorguieva
Throughout the past 75 years, the Palestinian people have tried both peaceful protests and uprisings. The two intifadas, meaning “shaking off”, aimed at ending Israel’s occupation with the goal of establishing an independent Palestinian State.
The uprisings resulted in the deaths of about 11,000 people, with the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths being slightly more than 3:1. It is worth mentioning that, while the Palestinians fought with sticks and stones, especially during the first intifada, Israel was heavily armed and sponsored by the US throughout.
The time between the two intifadas proves to be crucial to current events as it saw the birth of Hamas – an organisation that wanted the establishment of an Islamic state in Palestine. Nowadays called a terrorist group by some, Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2006 and became the de facto government of Palestine.
Back to October 2023. A horrific terrorist attack carried out by Hamas, and somehow missed by Israeli intelligence, takes place and ends the lives of 1,300 people. Israelis are left in utter heartbreak and despair as they search for the missing people in the hopes that, instead of dead, they have been taken hostage and might still be released into their loved ones’ arms.
The attack has been labelled by the media as “uncalled for” while that same media has kept quiet and remained blind to the atrocities committed on Palestinians for decades. Support, solidarity and empathy goes out to Israel, as it should in the face of tragedy, but some label all Palestinians as terrorists.
We continue to be unable to distinguish between terrorist organisations and the people of nations. We now justify the carpet bombing and literal extinguishment of an entire people because of the foul act of one small group.
Over the past days, thousands of people, nearly half of whom are children, have lost their lives in the revenge bombing Israel is carrying out. The government has entrapped millions in the tiny Gaza Strip and viciously sent missile after missile on civilian buildings in a maleficent effort to finally finish their genocide attempt.
Virtually everybody in Israel, women included, has military training and experience. Israeli forces and intelligence are arguably the best in the world, with endless resources and funding continuously coming in, while Palestinians remain a poor, entrapped nation.
Israel has already committed numerous war crimes. Gaza is once again under complete siege. There is collective punishment and use of white phosphorous.
Eva GueorguievaThousands of civilians have been killed and more are bound to lose their lives in the following days, justified by international communities and political leaders alike by the simple fact they were unlucky enough to be born in the land of Palestine.
Eva Gueorguieva is a journalist and writer with experience in TV, radio and digital media.