When shall Israel and Palestine say ‘never again’?

Rescue workers carry a body that was removed from under rubble following an Israeli air strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza strip on July 25, 2014. Two people were killed and three were wounded. AFP PHOTO | SAID KHATIB

What you need to know:

  • Thousands of civilians have been killed, many more in Gaza than in Israel. No one seems willing or able to stop the massacre.
  • Hamas is a creation of Israel’s apartheid policies for the past 50 years, and now Israel is impotent with rage.
  • There are no official figures for Palestinian deaths, but it is calculated that for every Israeli killed there are more than 25 Palestinian deaths, and 80 per cent of these are civilian.

Never again!

These words have been repeated again and again throughout history. “Never again,” we keep repeating.

“Never again” was at the lips of every negotiator of the disastrous Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War, a war that sent almost 29 million people to the grave and paved the way for the Second World War.

“Never again” was at the core of the founding of the United Nations in 1945, after the horror of the Second World War and a Holocaust that took away more than 50 million lives.

“Never again” was the cry on departing Vietnam’s shameful misery. “Never again” was the mea culpa of every nation that passively witnessed the Rwanda genocide in 1994.

“Never again” was on our lips at the signing of the Nairobi peace accord in February 2008.

“Never again” we repeat, again and again. Samantha Power, the current United States Ambassador to the United Nations, says “Never again” is the world’s most unfulfilled promise.

WHO ARE 'THESE HAMAS'

We are quietly witnessing this oft-broken promise being broken once again in the Gaza-Israeli conflict. Thousands of civilians have been killed, many more in Gaza than in Israel. No one seems willing or able to stop the massacre.

“Never again” will soon be repeated, once the Israeli-Gaza escalating conflict comes to an end, we hope.

The world keeps quiet, while rockets rain from the sky, children are maimed or killed, and men and women annihilated. Israel blames Hamas, who are not innocent creatures it is true, but who are "these Hamas"?

Hamas is a child of Israel. Israel had an affair with Violent Segregation and they engendered an illegitimate son, called Hamas. This did not happen in nine months, but has taken 50 years. Hamas’ surname is Israel’s second family name: Hatred.

Hamas is a creation of Israel’s apartheid policies for the past 50 years, and now Israel is impotent with rage. It has put in place Operation Protective Eagle, but things are not working out, they cannot work out. Israel is not thinking straight. There is a lot more to this conflict than just rockets and violence.

Israel’s motto is "Hammer Hamas." Perhaps they want to buy time and convince Palestinians that Hamas is not the way to peace and prosperity. Yet the more they hammer Hamas, the more powerful it becomes. Israel should know this by now. They were already warned 2000 years ago: "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword," but Israel didn’t listen. 

ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILLED

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, since the beginning of the Second Intifada from September 2000 until the end of July 2007, at least 5,848 people were killed. 

Of those, 4,228 were Palestinians, 1,024 were Israelis, and 63 were foreigners. For every person killed, approximately seven were also injured.

Eight years later, these figures are worse and more uneven, and they have become scandalous in the last four weeks. Last Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon publicly announced that a large number of Israeli soldiers had been killed in Gaza.

There are no official figures for Palestinian deaths, but it is calculated that for every Israeli killed there are more than 25 Palestinian deaths, and 80 per cent of these are civilian.

Clearly, international law and order have been swept under the carpet. International powers care selectively, and they act more forcefully to save lives in some countries rather than others. There is a deplorable logic behind diplomacy in the Middle East.

ONCE THEIR LAND

The choice of intervention, Jonas Claes complains, depends on “the power of the individuals orchestrating or executing the killings; the strategic value of the region; the support for international action from the region; the level of international media coverage and popular domestic appetite to intervene; and what military or financial resources are available.” If the value of human life is relative, dignity is over.

In these circumstances, the end justifies the means. Hamas is a real threat to Israel’s civilian population as well as to their own Palestinian people. Hamas’ rule in the Gaza Strip is tragic.

But again, this does not justify the violence, discrimination and incarceration of a people in what was, once upon a time, their land.

Will Israel ever realize that violence, no matter how successful, does not result in peace? Violence cannot be restrained. It is like turbulent water, which flows in an unpredictable fashion.

A NEW AUSCHWITZ

The sad part is that the US is utterly unable to put an end to the massacre. They can’t negotiate because they are not impartial. The rest of the world remains mute; after all, they consider this a family affair gone sour.

On 25 March 1998, Bill Clinton addressed the people of Rwanda. He said that it was important to let the world know that “these killings were not spontaneous or accidental. They were most certainly not the result of ancient tribal struggles. Indeed, these people had lived together for centuries. These events grew from a policy aimed at the systematic destruction of a people. The ground for violence was carefully prepared, the airwaves poisoned with hate. All of this was done, clearly, to make it easy for otherwise reluctant people to participate in wholesale slaughter.”

I’m wondering if Barack Obama should not be telling the people of Israel the same thing. Israel is reaping what they have sown in Gaza. Intolerance, reluctance to negotiate, hatred and continuous violence will soon turn Gaza into a new Auschwitz.

 The presidents of the Permanent Member States of the UN Security Council, who are coincidentally the largest weapon makers, should soon start drafting beautiful speeches, beginning with the usual words: Never Again!