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The Logic of Occupation - Part 4 The first rule of the logic of occupation: "The logic of occupation is actually a form of madness. Violence breeds violence without end." When Israel first occupied Lebanon in 1982, Israeli soldiers were greeted with almonds and flowers. Perhaps the same will occur in Iraq. But within a few months, Israeli soldiers were returning home in body bags by the dozen. The inevitable force that an occupier applies to maintain control of the occupation, leads to hatred and more violence. Inevitably, the occupied people see themselves as helpless victims and are driven by intense anger and a desire for revenge to relieve their suffering.
The Israeli army always claims that the purpose of its use of force is to make the Palestinians "understand that violence doesn't pay." Here's a quote from the Israeli army justifying their violent actions in Gaza: "Colonel Strick acknowledged that Israeli armor was operating in a volatile atmosphere in areas densely populated by noncombatants. But he said his forces would remain 'until the Palestinians understand this launching has a very high price.'" The occupier believes that he can "educate" the occupied by the use of force. But the education is usually in the opposite direction. Also read Aron's previous installments of this series. Aron always has good links on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but it is his personal observations, based on his time in the IDF and serving in the Occupied Territories, that is essential reading.
Background / Palestinians: Israelis 'deserved' Haifa bombing Satisfaction among Palestinians following the Wednesday's bus bombing in Haifa was much greater than after previous attacks. This was the impression received by a group of Palestinian journalists who carried out interviews in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A youth who enrolled in a computer course in East Jerusalem said Wednesday that when he came to the class everyone welcomed him saying, "Finally! The Israelis got what was coming to them!"
"We have 40 killed every week, so don't expect us to sit in silence," an Al-Aqsa Brigades member told journalists in Ramallah. Even senior Palestinian Authority officials, who condemned the attack, added that it was only to be expected considering Israel's "daily slaughter," as a spokesman for the PLO in Ramallah said.
Nightmare in Rafah
To understand daily life in Rafah is beyond the capability of most foreigners. Only by paying a visit is it possible to understand how people survive in a city that is almost completely surrounded by hostile tanks and gun towers, and loses portions of its border almost daily. Since the start of the second Palestinian Intifada, the Israeli Defense Forces have embarked on a slow, but monumental campaign of demolishing homes along the Egyptian border to the south and the Israeli settlements to the west. After conducting a few massive demolitions in July 2001 and again in January 2002, which garnered international condemnation, the IDF has resorted to slow and piecemeal destruction instead. In its now gradual method, over the past three months some 200 more homes have been demolished, brining the total in Rafah to over 600. This doesn't include the vast areas of orchards, gardens and greenhouses so critical to this impoverished city's food supplies.
There Is No Fixed Method for Genocide Dr. Ya'akov Lazovik writes ("Academic Genocide", "Ha'Aretz", 4 March) that in the State of Israel it is impossible that the regime and the nation will plan and commit a genocide. It is difficult to determine if this is naivety or self-righteousness. As we know, there is no single fixed method for murder and not even for genocide. The author Y. L. Peretz wrote about "the righteous cat" who does not spill blood, but only suffocates.
The government of Israel, using the military and its instruments of destruction, is not only spilling blood, but it is also suffocating. What other name can be given to the dropping of a one-ton bomb over a dense urban area, when the justification uttered is that we wanted to murder a dangerous terrorist and his wife? The rest of the citizens who were killed and injured, among whom are children and women, do not count, of course.
Unnatural disaster Of all the images associated with the occupied Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, extreme hunger is not the first to leap to mind. It is more likely to be the usual television pictures of tanks and guns, angry crowds and stone-throwing youths.
But according to UN figures, children in Gaza are today as seriously malnourished as children in Congo and Zimbabwe. |