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Category: Ilan Pappé

  • Much of the World Awakens to a Decades Long Genocide

    Several times over the past two decades, I have written about the malevolence of Israel (and by that I mean Zionist Israel, which is predominantly Jewish, although there are likeliest quislings among the Palestinian ranks, e.g., Mahmoud Abbas). Israel is part of Historical Palestine. However, the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine wrested a chunk of Historical Palestine away from Palestinians.

    Since its inception, Israel, the self-declared Jewish State, has been staunchly backed by the US with the tacit support of other western nations. Israel, indeed, has a powerful lobby.

    Israel has managed to chip away at the original 1947 UN partition plan map, that set borders for Jews and Arabs in Historical Palestine, until Palestinians were left with a fractional land base. Yet, when many so-called pundits speak of a two-state solution, they invariably speak of the 1967 borders and not the 1947 borders. Meanwhile, Israel, which acknowledges no borders for itself, has become ensconced in Syria’s Golan Heights, Lebanon’s Shebaa farms, and chunks of the West Bank.

    Many Palestinians have been forced to live their entire lives outside their homeland. Ilan Pappe wrote a book called The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine which relates the plight of 800,000 Palestinians pushed outside Historical Palestine.  In my review of Pappe’s book in 2007, I credited him with putting words to the Zionist crimes against Palestinians, but I (and my colleague Gary Zatzman) took issue with Pappe’s reluctance to call the “Israel-Palestine conflict” (Pappe’s wording) genocide.

    I concluded,

    Why is it an “Israel-Palestine conflict”? It implies an equivalency between the two sides. There is no equivalency. It is a Zionist genocide perpetrated against Palestinians, abetted by much of the bystanding world. This is what it has always been and continues to be.

    Finally, in 2009, Pappe demurred and called ethnic cleansing a “genocide in slow motion.”

    Israeli academics had already argued that ethnic cleansing is genocide, although they eluded mention of the Nakba.

    Following 7 October, Israel amped up its destruction of hospitals, schools, mosques, homes, etc; committed several massacres and war crimes; to which Israeli officials uttered openly racist epithets dehumanizing Palestinians which is just more of the same from Israeli officials, as racism and apartheid are Israeli policy. (See “Israeli Zionist Racism Unmasked”  and the series: “Defining Israeli Zionist Racism” Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.).

    Now, with the amping up of the destruction, massacres, and openly racist epithets by Israeli officials against Palestinians and Palestinian society, much of the fence-sitting world has recognized what this has always been: a genocide perpetrated by Israeli Jews (with polls indicating support by a majority of Israeli Jews, a stable sentiment over the years). Nonetheless, many western governments continue to provide cover for Israeli war crimes; for instance, sending in the gendarmes to crack down on the free speech rights of morally centered students opposed to the genocide against Palestinians. Or, in the US case, sending arms to Israel.

    It took South Africa to have the fortitude to haul Israel before the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

    And it seems the ICJ directives for Israel to halt further aggressions against Palestinians gave the International Criminal Court (ICC) the gumption to issue warrants for the arrest of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Yoav Gallant. For good measure, three Palestinians — Yahya Sinwar (Hamas leader), Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (commander-in-chief of the military wing of Hamas), and Ismail Haniyeh — were also indicted, for alleged involvement in the October 7 attacks, even though  Palestinians have the inalienable right to resist occupation and oppression.

    They say justice delayed is justice denied; only time will tell if the international legal deliberations to protect Palestinians from Israeli war crimes will be successful.

    The post Much of the World Awakens to a Decades Long Genocide first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • From the Darkness Must Come out the Light

    Having been awakened in the dead of night to an horrific screaming shriek, a blinding flash of light and cataclysmic explosion, followed by a bloody splattering of the body parts of one’s children, there will be one single motivating factor for the rest of a person’s life. And that motivation is not going to be, “I will now bow down my head in obeisance to the American-armed onslaught of the Genocidal State of Apartheid Israel.”

    Netanyahu and his cruelest cabal of subhuman thugs say that they aim to bomb Hamas into oblivion — millions of innocent, defenceless, impoverished and besieged Palestinian civilians be damned. They will not stop, they say, until “every last member of Hamas has been destroyed.” And just like their Zionist zealot predecessors, who came in the night, and uprooted more than 800,000 Palestinians, destroyed their villages and drove them out of their country in the 1948 Nakba, they will launch thousands upon thousands of sorties of American-supplied earth-shattering one ton bombs every night to amplify the terror, while eager Israeli citizens gather on nearby mountaintops and dance and cheer on the slaughter.

    They will mercilessly carpet bomb their way across Gaza from north to south, driving the utterly terrorized civilians before them. They will bomb the exodus as well for good measure, even as they promised them safe haven to the south. They will maim, amputate, decapitate, crush and burn thousands upon thousands of children and not give a damn. If they think there is a Hamas fighter hiding in a hospital, they will destroy it, doctors, nurses, patients, ambulances and refugees be damned. Every school, university or Masjid is precision bulls-eyed with American-supplied bombs shot from American-supplied jets to murder thousands more who are seeking refuge there. They will kill any journalist and their family, and any United Nations, Red Cross or other humanitarian volunteers. They will flatten Gaza like a tube of toothpaste, squashing all of its millions of people south in the cruelest, most blatant act of ethnic cleansing ever.

    The Zionist tsunami of bloodlust that drives this slaughterfest was brought into being by the British, but is now financed, armed and masterminded by the USA. It has long infected the now totally senile President of the USA himself, as well as virtually the entire grotesque quisling cabal of what passes for American government. Biden, the bomber-in-chief will brook no ceasefire. And the warmongering NATO cabal Goose-steps along with him, slathering for Palestinian blood. Biden’s most grovelling obsequious sycophants — such as Canada’s empathy-bereft Prime Minister, Justin “We Stand with Israel” is right on cue, categorically refusing to demand a ceasefire. Trudeau, ever the hypocrite, brags on ad nauseam about his pathetic “reconciliation” efforts with First Nations, who are themselves the victims of horrific ethnic cleansing and Colonial genocide. Trudeau condemns anyone protesting this most awful Israeli violence, in spite of polling that demonstrates a majority of Canadians want the killing to stop. Canada’s tax-payer-funded CBC has been reduced to a Goebelsian propaganda organ, constantly egging-on the onslaught — last night giving airtime to an Israeli avocado grower near the borders of Gaza, who whined that the massive bombardment next door was disturbing her peace.

    I am not Jewish, and although I have endeavoured to speak out about the plight of the long-suffering people of Palestine, my efforts are obfuscated by the charge that what I say is “anti-semitic.” And of course, for any conscientious Human Rights activist, an anti-semitism charge is an inevitable, predictable rite of passage. There is no such thing as a credible, conscientious Human Rights activist who has not been critical of the Genocidal State of Apartheid Israel. For speaking out, I’ve been harassed by B’Nai Brith, I’ve been blacklisted by the CBC and other “official narrative” and corporate-controlled propaganda organs. I’ve had to quit Facebook, because although 3000 carefully vetted Facebook Friends might “like” a post of my cat, my Facebook readership was constantly throttled back to zero by their censor-bots anytime I mentioned the name of Gaza, or Palestine. Though shalt not mention Gaza or Palestine on Facebook.

    If I were to be suddenly awakened at night by a massive American-supplied 1 ton bomb blast, precision guided by state-of-the-art homing device into my house, and splattered with the body parts of my children, I know what my single-minded obsession for the rest of my life will be. Just by watching Netanyahu’s merciless terror campaign, I know that somewhere beyond the depths of my good conscience, there lurks a vengeful, unforgiving monster, also capable of subhuman Netanyahuesque cruelty. I understand the motivation that leads people to join organizations like Hamas. It is in all of us. If you love your children, you will do the same. Whatever Hamas may be, if the violence-stupified Netanyahu thinks he can destroy Hamas by murdering thousands of innocent children for every single Israeli fighter, Hamas will simply morph and come back with an even more furious vengeance. Having lost all faith in humanity, I feel myself sinking into a dark, dreadful, deep, despair, and find myself yearning towards Armageddon.

    Nevertheless, there is a most powerful, light of courage shining out in this overwhelming darkness that brings tears of gratitude to my eyes. I think it might just be much more powerful than the gargantuan American-supplied weapons of mass destruction now being slung into Gaza by the crazed Netanyahu’s genocidal state. And that light is the most courageous Jewish activists who are leading the worldwide condemnations of this outrageous slaughter. I bow down to the indefatigable and eloquent Norman Finkelstein, Ilan Pappe, Max Blumenthal, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, Gabor Mate, Dan Cohen, to the thousands of Jews who are out there protesting “Not in my name!” and so may others. For anyone wishing to venture an opinion on these horrific event, Dr Pappe’s seminal work, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is absolutely essential reading. I am also immensely grateful to George Galloway, Edward Said, Noura Erekat, Ahed Tamimi, Eva Bartlett, Caitlin Johnstone, and everyone who writes for their amazingly courageous, heartfelt, conscientious work on behalf of the people of Palestine. I love them and thank them from the depths of my being.

    Note: “From the darkness must come out the light” -Bob Marley in his song, “Could you be loved?”

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Israeli historian Ilan Pappé accuses Netanyahu of ‘calculated and cynical provocation’ in Gaza attacks

    15 May was al-Nakba Day, an annual commemoration of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the late 1940s. On that symbolic day, The Canary spoke to historian Ilan Pappé in an exclusive interview. Professor Pappé is himself an Israeli Jew whose parents settled in Israel after fleeing persecution in Nazi-occupied Europe. However, he’s a staunch critic of both the events that led to Israel’s founding in 1948 and Israeli policy towards Palestinians since then.

    Pappé shared his expertise about what happened during al-Nakba, how it has been distorted by Israeli propaganda, and how this ethnic cleansing has a lasting relevance to this very day. He also discussed his thoughts about the recent escalation of violence in Gaza and Jerusalem, the latest Knesset elections, and the seemingly ever-rightward shift in Israeli public opinion. In addition, Pappé weighed in on the ongoing debate about a two-state vs one-state resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and responded to criticisms of the latter made by professor Norman Finkelstein, who The Canary interviewed in a two-part series in 2019.

    He also spoke of how he believes the central problem in Palestine is the legacy of settler colonialism. For him, the only way to overcome this legacy is to recognize that there already is one state and that there needs to be full recognition of rights for all Palestinians whether they live in the occupied territories, in Israel proper, or anywhere else.

    Understanding ‘the catastrophe’

    The Canary first asked Pappé to summarize what happened in al-Nakba. He said:

    The word al-Nakba literally means in Arabic ‘catastrophe’ and it refers to the event that occurred in Palestine… in the years 1947 and 1948

    He added:

    In the process of this ethnic cleansing the Zionists, and later the Israeli forces, expel half of Palestine’s population

    Pappé then spoke about how the Israeli government and wider Zionist movement have deliberately attempted to misrepresent al-Nakba for their own political purposes:

    Zionism as a whole is a project of propaganda. … The narrative I grew [up] on as an Israeli Jew was that actually in 1947 the United Nations offered the very generous and reasonable idea of dividing Palestine into two states. The Palestinians and the Arabs rejected it. The Arab world declared war on Israel and asked the Palestinians to leave so as to make way for the invading Arab armies. The Israelis tried to convince the Palestinians to stay but they wanted to leave. And that’s why the refugee problem was created. And miraculously Israel succeeded in fending off the attack from the Arab world.

    Setting the historical record straight

    Pappé pointed out that this narrative is incorrect first of all because the Zionist forces, though numerically smaller compared to the wider Arab world, were actually the more powerful militarily. And in any case, the Zionist leadership had already entered into a secret agreement with Jordan, the most powerful Arab military force at the time, that “totally neutralized the only Arab army that might have saved the Palestinians”.

    Moreover, Pappé mentioned that the idea that the Zionist leadership wanted the Palestinians to stay is blatantly false:

    Of course, you find out [from the historical record] the proof, which is undeniable proof, for the planning of the ethnic cleansing. And there’s no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to convince the Palestinians to stay. On the contrary, there’s plenty of evidence for the massive expulsion and the prevention of Palestinians from returning.

    Pappé pointed out that this is still the mainstream Israeli version that is repeated on Israel’s foreign ministry’s website, and throughout the country’s media and education system.

    The latest escalation of violence in Palestine

    Speaking about the current escalation of violence, he said:

    The immediate background is a serious provocation instigated by the Israeli prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu the moment he realized he’s not going to be able to form a government, and therefore might find himself on the way to court… if not to the jailhouse. And in a very calculated, cynical way he started a provocative action

    Pappé siad that Netanyahu:

    knew that the Hamas would react symbolically, and he used that pretext to retaliate with all the force of the Israeli army and used also settlers, fanatic settlers in the occupied territories, as a movement to steer a kind of a civil war

    He also mentioned the historical context, pointing specifically to the blockade and siege of Gaza, the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Area C in the West Bank, the apartheid situation in the occupied territories, and the continuing suffering of Palestinian refugees.

    Reflecting on the latest Israeli elections

    Pappé then spoke about the fallout of the most recent Israeli election and Netanyahu’s attempts to form a government. He agreed that the Israeli voting public seems to be moving further and further to the right:

    There are only two viable political options among the Jewish electorate of Israel – one is center-right and one is extreme right. There is no left. There is no liberal Zionist voice. There is no liberal Zionist force to reckon with. And these are the two options… the Israeli electorate in large numbers does not believe… that you can be both an ethnic state and a democratic state… So between the options of being democratic and being racist, they prefer the latter option.

    For Pappé, this renders the idea of any kind of change from within Israel a complete non-starter. As a result, “the conclusion from that is that the only way of changing things is very strong pressure on Israel from the outside.”

    The two vs. one-state solution

    Speaking on the one-state solution, Pappé was unequivocal in his support:

    There is no chance in the world for a two-state solution. … There is already a one-state solution, it’s called ‘The Apartheid Republic of Israel’ [and] it controls every parts of historical Palestine [by] different means… Our task, the task of the Palestinian liberation movement is now to ask: ‘How can we make this apartheid state more democratic, more free, more liberated?’

    He added:

    I don’t think that the Palestinians are only the people who live in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. … And I think Palestine is the country from the River in the Jordan [to the Mediterranean sea] and every part of it has to be liberated and every Palestinian needs to be liberated and be free. A two-state solution does not offer it. In fact, it offers a perpetuation of the colonization [by] other means.

    He rejected arguments about international law and the international consensus serving as the baseline for how to resolve the conflict:

    We are not talking about killing a state, we are talking of a regime change – from an apartheid regime to non-apartheid regime.

    He added:

    Palestine is an area of colonialism, it’s not an area where two states are fighting each other… [and so international law] is totally irrelevant to what is going on in Palestine. It’s a continued settler-colonial project that has to be decolonized.

    The future lies with the youth

    He concluded by saying that the greatest hope for the future lies with the younger generations of Palestinians:

    What I am in inspired by is the younger generation… And I think they are brewing new ideas of both the endgame, if you want, but also how to get there. …

    These new ideas, I’m hopeful that they will mature into not just soundbites or slogans but into a more practical program.

    See the full interview here:

    Featured image via Flickr – Hossam el-Hamalawy

    By Peter Bolton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.