Category: Politics

Amanda Schlicht

If you’re not careful, the newspaper will have you hating the people being oppressed, and loving those doing the oppressing

Malcolm X

Eight thousand seven hundred and eighty bodies. Three thousand three hundred children. Murdered, bombed, martyred. Nine hundred and five civil families were ripped off of the civil registry. Murdered, bombed, martyred. Israel’s violence takes on many forms: genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, colonization, terrorism, same action, different name. If there is one certainty, Israel’s actions cannot be deemed synonymous with war, or retaliation, as it would imply either side is fairly equipped, suitable in means of protection and weapons and food and electricity and water – I can go on. Rather an occupational state, Israel has funded relations, security, weapons of mass destruction, under the guise of what? Why has Israel been funded by billions of dollars from Western countries? There is the religious cause, an abundant desire for a theocratic ethno-state, or even their argument that the land belonged to them before Palestine on religious identity. Yet, fallacy was proven time and again, and once more the revelation that a genocide has been apparent for seven decades and the world still can’t condemn the killing of Palestinian children, of women, of elderly, of every Palestinian who lives. Genocide has always been easy for those who are white.

A Tumultuous History

Nabka, 1948. Catastrophe in Arabic. The displacement and dispossession of over 950,000 Palestinians from their homeland, from their homes. Marking the start of settler colonialism, the Palestinian refugee crisis was left unsolved by its own perpetrators, and as the campaign for ethnic cleansing continues, a genocide marked by a tiring 75-year-long occupation leaving 1.7 million Palestinians displaced, where they are subjected to an onslaught of bombing, torture, and death. With the expelling came the seizing of land and formally maps out what is now Gaza and the West Bank, two plots of land characterized by population density or the ‘open-air prison.’ Meaning Israel has 78% of Palestinian land, and those native, those born as Palestinians on Palestinian land – they hold the last 22% of their homeland. While it will be hard to encapsulate the severity of this genocide, I want there to be an underlying understanding of how little the Palestinians are left with, how much suffering they have experienced, how frequently maimed and brutally targeted they are by Israel, and the little help they have received.

IDF soldiers recount the tragedy of Nabka, rather pleasantly, highlighting just how easy it was to kill Palestinian civilians: “For the first 3-4 months, I was a murderer… If there was a classroom with their hands up, then on the same day if I would see this, I would ‘cut’ everyone down.’ ‘How many people do you think you killed like that?’ ‘I didn’t count. [laughs] I had a machine gun with 250 bullets and I shot. [laughs]. I can’t count.” 15,000 Palestinians were killed in the Nakba⁶. Another IDF soldier proudly states: “Of course we killed them. We killed them without remorse. No qualms at all… The soldiers took flamethrowers in their hands, chased the villagers, and set them on fire… One of the soldiers raped a 16-year-old girl here [laughs]… He gathered them (Palestinians) and put them in a cage and killed them.”

As I often recall when speaking of the United States’ history of brutality and death the Native Americans experienced on their land, it is understandable an environment is to be fostered with the same reenactment of violence. Israel is no exception, with a mindset toward a ‘pure race’ and ‘exceptional mental qualities,’ the Zionist awakening in the last wave of nationalism in Europe took on an impossible task – ‘to forge a single ethos from a great variety of cultural-linguistic groups, each with a distinctive origin.’ By inciting violence, here are the major conflicts Israel spurred with Palestine since 1947:

1948 Arab-Israeli War, also known as the Nakba, that was commenced at the establishment of the State of Israel. 15,000 Palestinians were killed, tortured, and displaced. Palestine was annexed with West Bank belonging to Jordan and Gaze belonging to Eygpt.

1967. Six-Day War, Israel gained control of the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt resulting in 20,000 Palestinian Casualties and fewer than 1,000 Israelis. 350,000 Palestinians were displaced and 100,000 Syrians fled from the West Bank.

2000 -2004. Second Intifada, U.S. President Clinton interjected on behalf of Israel for a peace treaty, that sparked Camp David Peace Treaty. Palestine rejected on behalf of no negotiations toward land, settlement, and security. It was a deal to keep Palestine quiet.

2006. Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentary election. Israel imposed sanctions unless Hamas agreed to accept Israeli-Palestine agreements, forswear violence, and recognize Israel’s right to exist, Hamas declined.

2007. Battle of Gaza, Hamas took control of Gaza and Israel imposed a naval blockade

2008. Operation Cast Lead, a 22-day-long militia leaving 1,338 Palestinians killed and billions of dollars in damage. Use of chemical warfare. Ceasefire was noted in 2009.

2014. Gaza War, Operative Protective Edge. Complete devastation to the Gaza Strip after Eygptian ceasefire. 2,200 Palestinian deaths, 11,000 injured, a civilian casualty rate of 75%, 500,000 Palestinians were displaced, and 17,000 homes were destroyed. The UN-run schools, Gaza’s power plants, and civilian buildings were the main targets of Israel’s bombs.

Palestinian history has been tarnished since 1947, ever since they walked to the ships the Jews disembarked and welcomed with open arms. Shlomo Sand wraps up the conflict simply; “To achieve this aim, the Zionists needed to erase existing ethnographic textures, forget specific histories, and take a flying leap backward to an ancient, mythological, and religious past⁷“

The Present and its Ongoing Genocide

There is much I want to be clear about and that is the statistics of this genocide. To reference the onslaught of bombing Palestine has faced in the last seven decades, I want to bring attention to the amount utilized by Israel. Currently (1.11.23), Israel has dropped 18,000 tons of explosive bombs, which is 1.5 times the bomb dropped on Hiroshima¹. Along with this staggering number, chemical warfare has been essential in operation for Netanyahu, as Israel is using white phosphorus during their rounds of bombing. This is not the first time the chemical has been used, as Israel also admitted to using white phosphorus in Operation Cast Lead², leaving 1,417 Palestinians dead. Furthermore, after destroying 85 government buildings, they also “[Israel] demolished 47 mosques and inflicted significant harm to three churches. The attack has resulted in over 200,000 damaged buildings, with 32,500 of them rendered uninhabitable, 203 and three schools have sustained major damage, and 45 schools are now completely non-operational¹.” Hospitals like Anglican Hospital, Turkish Hospital, Indonesian Hospital, and Al-Dorra Hospital just in 2023. Refugee camps, like Jabalia Refugee Camp, which has been bombed profusely over the years and as of 31.10 was bombed twice in 24 hours later being known as a ‘children’s graveyard’ leaving brains outside of the skulls of children and skin melting off of bodies.

Next, is the war crimes, the many of them. While it is easy to deduce the funding Israel receives from the Western powers, i.e 158 billion dollars from the US, the MYOU spanning 2019-2028 funds 38 billion in military aid and as per the MYOU2023 Congress authorized 520 million for joint US-Israel defense programs, the terms of the MOU congress appropriated 3.8 billion for Israel with addage to military power¹²… bigger questions are examined when Israel has yet to receive consequence for the enacted war crimes onto Palestine. To keep it short here are the crimes committed: Geneva Protocol, Common Article 33, 2B1 of the Geneva Convention, 2BV, 2BIX, 2BXXII, XXV, 2EIII, XIII, VIII, IV³. Consequences would be an appropriate response, right? As the UN fights for its sacredness toward being ‘united,’ little action has been done, or rather none, and so what becomes of this? Simply, if Western powers commit war crimes without punishment, then to them genocide has no consequence, they are lifted from the moral obligation to care about those outside of themself, and likely it will continue past what we are currently witnessing on an international scale.

Focusing on the West Bank briefly, it is imperative to break down the atrocious conditions of Palestinians living in what is known as ‘an open-air prison.’ Restrictions, as it is put, where the villages and towns inside the forced territory are now blocked by military checkpoints, earth mounds, cement blocks and iron gates⁴, allowing for no movement between Palestinians. Angela Davis delivered a speech at the SOAS, stating, “The Israeli military made no attempt to conceal or even mitigate the character of violence they inflicted on Palestinian people. Gun-carrying military men and women — many extremely young — were everywhere. The wall, the concrete, the razor wire everywhere conveyed the impression we were in prison. Before Palestinians are even arrested, they are already in prison… one can be transferred from an open-air prison to a closed prison⁵.” In hindsight, the terminology is simple – forced into precise cuts of land where one is surrounded by fences, IDF soldiers, blockades, etc. while simultaneously controlling and removing freely food, water, electricity, trade, mail delivery, access to fishing ports, medical supplies or assistance, and contact from the outside world. The houses of Palestinians are bombarded, ransacked, and overtaken forcibly until they are forced out onto the streets. The eastern wall, which expands from the north to the south, is estimated at 200 kilometers in length. This wall allows Israel to isolate and control the Jordan Valley area, which is considered as the food basket of Palestine and the main source of food for the Palestinian people⁶.

When speaking of the present, or rather any attack Palestine has encountered from Israel, here are some proponents that cannot be seen:

Dust: Every time a bomb is dropped on a civilian building, a refugee camp, a hospital, the building becomes dust, which is inhaled without a mask and left in the body due to a lack of water. (97% of Palestinian water is contaminated right now). This is something that can’t be documented, only felt.

Noise: There is no break from noise whether it be the bombing, firing from weapons by the IDF in both the West Bank and Gaza, the ambulances, mothers and fathers and children screaming for help, crying as their loved one is stuck under rubble or they hold their dead child in their hands. There are no breaks.

Decay: There are at least 1500+ bodies trapped under the rubble, Presumed to be dead. The smell of dead flesh fills the air as 8,796 Palestinians are killed. After the ice cream trucks could no longer hold bodies, they started for mass graves, where the children played and exclaimed how they would one day be in this ground.

Waste: Trash, blood-soaked clothes, food scraps, and waste get piled up in huge piles with no one to collect them, no sanitation practices. Women are delaying their periods with pills so no infection could incur.

Flies: With decay comes flies, an uncontrollable amount. They bite the living as well as the dead. They land on the trash, the food, the rubble, and what very water is left.

Insomnia: Palestinians are recording three to four hours a night if possible due to the constant bombing. Fear, despair, and trauma rack their bodies leaving them in a state of exhaustion. With this comes slow reaction times and a weakened immune system.

As I am writing this, explosives of white phosphorus were dropped into a UNRWA school, and while brave Palestinian men immediately rose into action to cover the phosphoric acid, it is recognized they most likely will not survive within the next 24 hours due to skin falling off the body or internal shutdown. After bombing the highest concentrated refugee camp, Jabalia Refugee Camp, killing 400 instantly, the camp was bombed once more in less than 24 hours. It is known as the ‘graveyard of children.’ To be clear, it is a war crime to bomb a hospital, refugee camp, or school. Israel has bombed 12¹¹ hospitals since 2014 (relentlessly), 10¹¹ schools since 2008 (multiple times), and 24¹¹ refugee camps since 2012 (sometimes 4 times a year), and yet they are declared the brave ones, the ones who need help, the ones who are suffering and trying to discover ‘peace.’

Israel and Its Racism: The First Step Toward Radiclization

There was always talk of a ‘pure race.’ The ‘founding fathers’ of Zionism, Buber and Jabotinsky, contrasted significantly in their political values when forming such nationalism, yet they agreed on one particular hypothesis: ‘Jews have a distinctive blood that sets them apart from the other people.’ While I will be lacking in insinuation, the foundation didn’t lack racist ideology, and when determining that religious metaphysics could not forfeit Palestinian land, they turned to biology, or more specifically the breakdown and eventual segregation of race. As the present-day marches in Israel support the murder of Palestinians or rather Arabs in general, there is much to be said of the lack thereof for change toward a Eurocentric outlook. With this, Ruppin, another leftist Zionist, envelops key declaration of Israel and zionist followers: “The Jews have not only preserved their great natural racial gifts […] Other nations may have other points of superiority, but in respect of intellectual gifts the Jews can scarcely be surpassed by any nation.⁷“

Shlomo Sand, author of The Invention of the Jewish People, summarizes the desire for purity writing, “The purpose of Jewish biology was to promote separation from others, not actually to be purified of them. It sought to serve the project of ethnic nationalist consolidation in the taking over an imaginary ancient homeland.” The disapproval of ‘intermarriage’ would create a loss in ‘race-character’ traits the Jews naturally possessed and ‘remarkable gifts’ were to be lost if one did not marry within the ethnicity. Simply marked down by eugenics, the dispossession and killing of Palestinians is redefined by order of “one ethnic majority, one religion, and one language” and a hunger “to produce anew the Philistine type in Philistia.”

For this I am going to play into the ritual destruction identity politics offer, an available mechanism that creates urgency for a new nation-state. Eventually, with the connection of the Bible to the Palmah to state-taught education, racial exclusion was a proponent to their ideology, leaving generations of students who believed wholeheartedly in their racial ‘uniqueness.’ Chanting ‘death to Arabs’ was natural with the Israel flag in hand, watching Palestines being carpet bombed on top of a hill while enjoying dinner, clapping each time a bomb dropped down on Gaza, spitting on Christians in Palestine, rejoicing on the death of Prophet Muhammad, desecrating Mosques, it continues. Then, ‘Jewish Genetics’ materialized. Funded by Western science, with constant conferences and academic research, it was clear a distinct separation must be made between ‘Ashkenazi’ and ‘Sephardis’ Jews to prove their racial superiority. There was no conclusion to support Jews having been descendants of the ancient Hebrews, but rather, “still indicated that the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews were related, only now they did not resemble local Arabs, but rather the Armenians, Turks, and chiefly, as noted, the Kurds⁷.”

In comes the UN, declaring there to be a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State” as the United States refused to take in any Jews after 1924 and rich white countries closed their borders, it was easier to solve the ‘troublesome’ Jewish issues in a faraway land not connected to them. As the international community has witnessed for the last seven decades, the violence enacted by Israel was never short of fatal, always constant, never once welcoming, and you are left to question to absurdity of the situation. It is easy to declare that white, rich, European countries lack empathy toward the Middle East, easy to assume that such a situation falls upon them [colonizers], whether it be the countries previously colonized fight back for their rightful land, they would never allow the co-existence of ‘two states’, but I become hysterical when arguing about liberation and freedom to the same people willing to wage wars for their own country. I am dumbfounded and I often feel tricked with a lack of empathy in the masses. The videos of Palestinians being tortured, taken from homes, killed, with flesh burning off the faces of children and bones protruding out of legs with tearless kids. When I hear the screams of mothers that ring into my nightmares and every shower, meal, bus ride until I sit at a desk like I am now and feel hopeless like I did fifteen years ago. I was a child, just like they are children, yet I was never pushed out of my homeland, killed or maimed, hell even threatened by such atrocities and the simplest conclusion I can make is that the bravery Palestinan’s have will never match mine.

If you are to take a single idea from this section let it be that peace was never part of a resolution, nor way of co-existence. They were never silent about their desire to kill, why should this be such a surprise now? If you are questioning how one group that has experienced genocide possibly reenact such actions onto another group, must I leave you with this quote: “Suffering doesn’t make people good. It just makes them suffer.”

Funding and Boycotts

While speaking on funding, the money is extensive and nauseating. Of course, statistics are to be vital in this section, but the frequency of money leads to inconceivable devastation. As the United States names Israel to be its closest ally in the Middle East, vast military apparatus is funded, and while it is to be known that once you are 18 and living in Israel your hands now hold machine guns and rifles, Israel finds its necessary to have 300,000 IDF soldiers stationed in the Gaza Strip, a 12-mile piece of land home to two million Palestinians. Must I indulge in a quick breakdown of Israel’s funded military: 169,500 active personnel (465,000 reserves), the Iron Dome, 2,200+ tanks, 530 artillery, 5 submarines, 49 patrol and coastal combats, 142 helicopters, 339 combat capable aircrafts (309 fighter ground attack jets)⁹. To be frank, how is by definition, this a war? By which I mean, the 263 billion dollars the US has given Israel in the last six decades, funding military and civilian healthcare, what is Palestine to fight back with? Coming ahead in military spending from the United States, 3/4 of Israel’s imports come from the United States amounting to 2.1 billion, the rest coming from Germany with 546 million. Even with breaking The Leahy Law, US weapons, funding, deals, are brutally massacring Palestinians. There are many stances to the situation at hand. It can be noted that the US government entered a shutdown after failing to compromise on the overall spending for the next fiscal year, a fight between the two parties yet unsolved, and still the United States president drew up a 100 billion dollar deal that would send over 14.3 billion dollars in aid to Israel after October 7th (Edit: The United States approved of the bill to aid Israel in the 14.3 billion dollars on 2.11). A country lacking in healthcare, homelessness, food deserts, education, livable wages, etc. funds a country founded on a pure race and hatred for Arabs. Maybe they have more in common than many thought.

In terms of boycotting, the list is once again, extensive. Due to conglomerates, companies like Nestle, hold the American food chain by its neck. Therefore, three companies were targeted: McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Disney +. The former giving free meals to IDF soldiers, a matter which can only be done at the death of Palestinians. Starbucks sued its union for standing with Palestine. A simple action to defund Israeli occupation still faces backlash, but we are simply doing what Israel did to Palestine multiple times: inducing sanctions.

All parts of me question why there is no ceasefire, hell why is there no call for a ceasefire by the UN, an impartial union of leaders from around the world who deliver consequences when breaking international law, yeah that UN? As I am a pessimistic girl at heart, I think it to be fair to state that politicians, international communities, governments, are inherently corrupt. For example, Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF is married to Thomas Dillion, the chairman of Blackrock Investments. To be clear, Blackrock Investments is the biggest shareholder in weapons manufacturer, Sturm, Ruger, & Company, shares that bring in 200 million dollars annually. Or in 2019, articles featuring Palestine covered one specific topic, the title speaks for itself, “The Unrealized Potential of Palestinian Oil and Gas Reserves,¹⁰” an article published and founded by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It was shortly followed by the words, “The Economic Cost of Occupation for Palestinian People.” All old desires fester.

Why must Palestinians fight for your empathy? It was never about the children being shot dead in refugee camps by the IDF, as steel missiles bombarded their buildings, as their olive trees are set on fire and their food is taken, no, they had to prove their innocence first. They had to declare, condemn, ostracize, and beg for a spared look at the massacre of their people, their homeland.

To all that wish to have families, big and abundant, loud and full of life, know that your silence aided in 905 families no longer existing, wiped off the civil registry, martyred. What makes your family so special?

There is much I was not able to say, or know, and by this I say to go and learn. Support your Palestinian friends, protest, march, sign, donate.

To end, I leave with the indomitable faith of Islam, of Palestinians, and their trust in Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam:

“If Allah lifted the veil for you just 10 minutes and you could see the sky of Palestine, you would see a sight of wonder. Waves of angels racing to ascend with the souls of the martyrs to Allah in a special celebration. I swear by Allah besides whom there is no god, but him. The sky is filled with the scent of perfume. These people have completed their test in this world, so there is no need for them to stay in this world. Allah has chosen them for. You see the painful images, don’t you? But my messenger and your messenger Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasaallam swore by Allah that the martyr will not experience pain, except that of a pinch. So just as if I pinch you by the hand, do not fear for them. I know you are saddened, so remember that the messenger Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said, “No one in this world dies and wishes to return to the world except the martyr. The martyr wishes that they would die for his sake, 1000 times, to keep dying gor his sake and come back.” I am now seeing things in Gaza that if you saw them with your own eyes, you would die of joy. These martyrs are alive and eternally provided for by their sustainer.”

1: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-has-dropped-18-000-tons-of-bombs-on-gaza-15-times-more-than-bomb-dropped-on-hiroshima/3039805

2: Operation Cast Lead: Three week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinan ‘military’ groups and the IDF that continued for 22 days before ending in a ‘unlitateral’ ceasefire. Israel intiated the conflict with Hamas defending the land, afer the IDF attacked police stations, military targets, and political and administrative institutions. It is to be deemed illegal under international law of the ground invasion and use of white phosphorus. Israel was never codemned nor accounted for in their war crimes during this invasion.

3: Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, Collective Punishment, Taking of hostages, Attacking or bombarding towns, villages, buildings which are undefended and are not military objects, Internationally directing attacks against building dedicated to religion, hospitals, education or where there are sick and wounded, Committing raoe or any type of form of sexual violence, Intentionally issuing starvation of civilians as method of warfare by depriving them objects indispensile to their survival, Intentionally directing attacks against building materials and medical supplies, Destroying and seizing of property, The deportation or transfer of all parts of the populations occupied territory within or outside that territory, Intentionally launching attacks with the knowledge it would cause loss of life to civilians widespread or severe damage to the natural environement.

4: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/28/palestinians-in-occupied-west-bank-face-closures-harassment-and-attacks

5: Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of the Movement, Angela Y. Davis

6: https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/nakba%2060.pdf

7: The Invention of the Jewish People. Shlomo Sand

8: Palestine as a Position of Witnessing: A Conversation with Adania Shibli, Adania Shibli and Claudia Steinberg

9: Al Jazzera, How big is Israel’s military and how much funding does it get from the US?

10: https://unctad.org/news/unrealized-potential-palestinian-oil-and-gas-reserves

11: Hospitals: Al-Aqsa Hospital (2014), Al-Shifa Hospital (2014), Beit-Hanoun Hospital (2014), Balsam Hospital (2014), European Gaza Hospital (2014), Indonesian Hospital (2021), Al-Asqa Hospital (2015), Al-Awda Hospital (2021), Al-Dorra Hospital (2023), Indonesian Hospital (2023), Indonesian Hospital (2023)

Schools: Islamic University (2008), Islamic University of Gaza (2014), University College of Applied Sciences (2014), Jabalia Elementary Girls School (2014), Beit-Hanoun Elementary School (2014), Ragas UNRAW School (2014), Al-Quds University (2022), Islamic University of Gaza (2023), Education above all Foundation (2023), Al-Maghazi School (2023), UNWRA School (2023)

Refugee Camps: Nuseirat Refugee Camp (2012), Magazine Refugee Camp (2013), Khan Younis Refugee Camp (2014), Magazine Refugee Camp (2014), Bureij Refugee Camp (2014), Eagan Refugee Camp (2015), Nuseirat Refugee Camp (2015), Al-Shari Refugee Camp (2018), Al-Shari Refugee Camp (2021), Bureij Refugee Camp (2021), Rafah Refugee Camp (2022), Jabalia Refugee Camp (2022), Maghazi Refugee Camp (2022), Rafah Refugee Camp (2023), Al-Magahazi Refugee Camp (2023), Jabalia Refugee Camp (2023), Jabalia Refugee Camp (2023), Jabalia Refugee Camp (2023), Al-Shari Refugee Camp (2023), Al-Shark Refugee Camp (2023), Nuseirat Refugee Camp (2023), Bureij Refugee Camp (2023), Bureij Refugee Camp (2023), Maghazi Refugee Camp (2023), Jabalia Refugee Camp (2023)

12: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf