You see the same headline everywhere: Israel at war.
No, Israel is not at war. Wars occur between at least two states. There is a state called Israel and it is occupying Palestine. The Israeli occupation of Palestine for 75 years is the root cause of everything that is happening right now.
For years, Israel has been destroying, and Palestine has been resisting. Israel is not the victim, it is the assailant. Palestine is the victim and Palestine has a right to defend itself. The right to resist is acknowledged by international law when under occupation.
Palestine does not have nuclear power: Palestinians do not have tanks, they do not have jets, they do not have battleships. Right now, they do not even have water, electricity and fuel because of the Israeli blockade. Their homes, along with hospitals, churches, mosques, bakeries and markets, were systematically destroyed. This, regrettably, is not a recent occurrence.
The current events did not start on Oct. 7, when Hamas initiated a large incursion into some Israeli cities. They did not begin in 2006 when the people of Gaza democratically elected Hamas to govern. They also did not start in 1987 when Hamas was founded. The root of this conflict dates back to 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians were uprooted and expelled from their homes. This marks the beginning of a historical process of ethnic cleansing and demographic engineering that began in 1948 and is still ongoing.
If you want to see why Israel’s brutality has nothing to do with Hamas, look at the West Bank which is under Israeli martial law. Hamas is not there but Palestinians are living under severe conditions. Palestinian people are not allowed to walk on the same streets as Jewish people. They are under constant surveillance. They have to go through several checkpoints to go to work and even to get treatment.
They are open to being shot by a sniper or by an illegal settler or thrown in jail and/or tortured with no consequences. Moreover, they are kicked out of their homes by illegal settlers.
In the last decade, the population of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, had grown from 520,000 to over 700,000. Only three months ago, the Israeli Defense Ministry committee approved over 5,000 new settlement housing units in the occupied West Bank.
Until Oct. 7, Israeli forces or settlers killed 34 Palestinians in the West Bank. There is no Hamas presence in the West Bank but Israel is trying to make sure Palestinians living under their occupation have no dignity left as well.
However, resistance is dignified and the spirit of the Palestinian people will not be broken.
