Israel, Palestine and charges of anti-Semitism - EDITORIAL

Being critical of, or any critical analysis of Israeli actions against particular groups by the government of Israel, often leaves the accuser in danger of being charged with anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, in many instances, the US and the West tend to walk lock-step with Israeli authorities, if and when these charges are made.

The Western media too, tends to fall in line with Israeli accusations. More often than not, critical thinkers, and or those who highlight Israeli atrocities on non-Israeli communities, stand condemned.

A typical example, is the case of Israeli researcher Teddy Katz, who in 1998 submitted his Masters’ Thesis on Israeli war crimes at Haifa University. It focused on an alleged massacre that Israeli soldiers of the ‘Alexandroni Brigade’ carried out during the early stage of Israel’s war of independence - committing war crimes on unarmed individuals.The study was acclaimed by Israeli scholars. But some Alexandroni Brigade members sued.

 At the end of a swift trial, Katz had to recant, in return charges were dropped. Katz’s recanted, his thesis was disqualified and taken off Israeli book shelves. At a subsequent investigation 20 years later, several veterans broke their silence and confessed. Others described the atrocities they witnessed. 
The result - a documentary titled ‘Tantura’.

The state of Israel, as is well known, was set up by the then European-dominated United Nations in 1948; partitioning Palestine into the state of Israel and Palestine, over objections of the Palestinians and Arab nations. The region is rich in oil and petroleum resources which keep the world’s economy turning. 
Since Israel was set up, in 2019 according to UNRWA, over 5.6 million Palestinians have registered with UNRWA as refugees. Of this number over 1.5 million live in UNRWA-run camps. These figures do not include internally displaced Palestinians, who became Israeli citizens, or displaced Palestinian Jews. Since 1967, Israeli authorities have demolished 28,000 Palestinian homes, with 2,586 demolitions in 2020 alone.

The biggest change to Israel’s UN sanctioned borders came in 1967, after the conflict known as the ‘Six Day War‘. Since then, Israel has occupied of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and most of the Syrian Golan Heights - effectively tripling the size of the territory under Israeli control by approx. 4,244,776 acres. 

As shown in a fact sheet produced by MSNBC, more than 400 Palestinian cities and towns have been systematically destroyed by Israeli forces or re-populated with Jews.

In March 2019, UN Rights expert Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, confirmed Israel “continues full-steam with settlement expansion” in the West Bank, which the United Nations and many countries deem illegal. There are some 20,000-25,000 new settlers a year. His report added Israel was depriving millions of Palestinians of access to a regular supply of clean water while stripping their land of minerals “in an apparent act of pillage”.

The result, Palestinians are not just denied a state of their own, large numbers have been forced to live in refugee camps, others living in what should be their own state, are forced to live in concretized ghettos put up by Israeli occupation forces, are subject to intermittent missile attacks, bombings, military attacks by Israeli armed forces and Jewish settlers in Palestinian lands.

Worst of all, the Palestinians are forced to do with very limited potable water by the state of Israel.
In South Africa during the era where the European-origin South Africans ruled over the majority, the world condemned their actions and accused the regime of committing apartheid on black Africans. Yet, today the world looks on in silence, while Palestinians are being subject to even worse crimes than the European- origin rulers in South Africa committed on Africans of different colour. Internationally boycotts were imposed on that regime. In the end the apartheid regime fell.

But, today the world stands silent on Israeli crimes against Palestinians for fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, or is it that particular states that need Israeli support to control the petroleum resources of the Middle East.
Whatever the reason, the US, its Western allies and the rest of the world - all stand guilty for ignoring the plight of Palestine and its people and permitting an aggressor state to continue its crimes against humanity on hapless and helpless people.