Six months later and what unfolded in the Gaza strip represents so much of what is ugly in the world; apartheid, ethnic cleansing, manipulation, lies, hegemony, greed, prejudice, lust for power, absolute control, humiliation, and mass murder all took centre stage. Israel’s naked and defiant aggression was stunning and once again, Palestinians were on the receiving end. Innocent women and children were burned alive, unarmed men and boys were slaughtered, ambulances and hospitals were attacked, indiscriminant chemical attacks fell form the sky, and United Nation facilities were bombed. Throughout this latest conflict Israel referred to itself as a victim acting in self defense. RELATIVITY OnLine Editor David Anthony Hohol represents the changing views of the world, as more and more people begin to see Israeli action in Palestine as being tantamount to state-sponsored terrorism.

Where does it say there are times when taking the life of an innocent is acceptable? Are there a tolerable number of lives that can be sacrificed in the name of battle? If the deaths of ten children bring security to a nation, are those deaths to be seen as necessary? What about the deaths of one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred children? What about more?

There was never a time in my life when I was nothing but proud to be Canadian. I actually felt sorry for Americans who suffered under the public relations disaster that was the Bush Administration, and took solace in the fact I would never have to feel embarrassed by the actions of my country. That’s why it was so painful when things changed. The headline read Canada Stands Alone with Israel, and my heart sunk when I first read it. When the Canadian ambassador to the UN voted against a ceasefire resolution for the War of Gaza, I knew there was a problem in my country. The lone nation of forty-seven to vote against the ceasefire proposal, a proposal that was symbolic at best, it was argued the wording was not sufficient, the agreement itself was not durable, and not enough blame was placed on Hamas. I felt embarrassed; I felt sick; I feel sick. Even an abstention would have been better; a silent protest against the semantics of a document that proved meaningless, the United Nations once again showing it’s no longer relevant as an authority of any kind. Stephen Harper is the Prime Minster of Canada; Stephan Harper has brought shame to many Canadians. Throughout its one-hundred and forty-two year existence, Canada has always been known as a socially conscious state of diplomacy. Harper has altered this image for the worse. I urge all of you who hold the power to bring about change, to think about this in our next election.  

 Offering a condemnation of Israeli warfare is not anti-Semitic; calling Israel’s actions against the Palestinians state sponsored terrorism and internationally sanctioned ethnic cleaning is not anti-Semitic. Israelis love to cry foul and liken any criticism of its policies to attack on Judaism itself, but the time has come to stop accepting this manipulative lie. Their tragic history does not excuse them the actions of their  government. The wholesale defacement and mutilation of the Gaza strip, as the world looked on and did nothing, is the collective shame of humanity. The best that could be mustered in the most recent devastation were empty demands for an immediate ceasefire from the United Nations or The European Union; hollow calls of nothingness made for no other reason than protocol. Even worse, cowardly sycophantic Arab world countries sat back and watched their own being slaughtered like animals; their leaders showing they are nothing more than quivering megalomaniacs, too concerned with grasping at wealth and power, at the expense of their own people, to stand up for Palestine. When an Arab world summit was called at the eight of the Gaza massacre, leaders took two weeks to argue over where they should meet; ego their biggest concern when innocent people were being killed in the streets. There is no unity in the Arab world, and the Arab League of Nations stinks of lies and corruption. Most Middle East governments afford more respect to Europeans or North Americans than they do their own people.  

Why did this happen? Take away the voluntary servitude of the Western world media and what is left is the desire for power over the weak; the quest for more by the Israelis.  Peel back the purely cultural labels of the victim’s language and religion, and what it left is are the cries of the oppressed and downtrodden; the cold boot of a tyrant pressed firmly against the Palestinian people, their homes, and their families. Is it too much to ask for the closure of at least some of the more than six hundred checkpoints in the West Bank? And this is supposed to be designated Palestinian territory? In reality, it’s no more than a concentration camp. Guard towers, roadblocks, concrete walls, and barbed wire, hardly sounds like freedom.  All are daily reminders of being occupied and oppressed; all are daily reminders of the degrading humiliation being forced upon the Palestinians by an occupying Israeli state.  All the Palestinians want is a life free of concrete blockades and degradation. Is that too much to ask? For Israel, it is.

The fact of the matter is that Israel has no intention of allowing a sovereign Palestinian state to exist and the signs have been there from the very beginning.  In 1948, immediate aggression was shown, when Israel took nearly 25% more land than was allotted to them by the UN. A steady stream of massacres and schemes played out through the 1950s. In the 1960s, defying international law, Israel continued swallowing up more land, taking over the remaining 22% of historic Palestine. The 1970s saw Israeli settlements built inside the West Bank, instant small cities, with roads and services Palestinians are not allowed to use; all of which exist to inhibit the development of even a single strip of Independent Palestinian territory. To make the position clear, in 1974, Israel, along with the United States, alone voted against a UN sponsored two-state solution. With the 1980s and 1990s came the massive expansion of road blocks, check points, walls, and guard towers, as Israel continued to reinterpret UN Security Council Resolutions to its own liking. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon and took hold of the Jordanian border in order to more easily annex the West Bank and in 1987, even funded Hamas in the first Intifada, so that the more secular-minded and diplomatic factions of Palestine would be undermined. What has unfolded since 1948 is clear; the slow but steady eradication of all things Palestinian; the ethnic cleansing of an entire race of people.

Israel has repeatedly shown the world, again and again, it will never accept an independent Palestinian state. What will it take for the rest of us to see? What will it take to end the criminal silence of the ‘international community’? The events that unfolded in Gaza had little or nothing to do with Hamas; what has unfolded over the past several decades has little or nothing to do with Iran or Syria, with Mahmood Abbas or Hassan Nassrallah, with terror or Hezbollah. The Israeli / Palestinian conflict, at its core, is about empire, greed, wealth, and egotism. In the end, when one takes away all the political cliché and sophisticated academic theory, all that’s left is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, driven solely by the ideology of power and dominion over the weak. The world, along with an indifferent collectivity of Arab nations, continues to look on without seeing. What will it take to open our eyes? Perhaps, it was Gaza; perhaps all those that died, did not die in vain.

From David Anthony Hohol. . .