When Will Israel be Judged for it's Brutality To Palestinians?

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The Times gave us graphic details on Monday's tragic suicide bombing that killed nine Israelis, but it told us little about the Palestinian context.

A Palestinian college student lost her right eye after being shot by an Israeli sniper last week. In the preceding 2 1/2 weeks alone, Israeli forces killed 26 Palestinians, five of them children, according to the Palestinian Monitoring Group. Israeli forces fired at least 2,300 artillery shells and 34 missiles into Gaza, according to a U.N. report. About 9,400 Palestinians are incarcerated under brutal conditions in Israeli prisons, according to the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian civilians have been killed in far greater numbers than Israelis throughout this conflict.

We are Americans, not Israelis. Please give us the whole picture, not an Israeli-centric one.ALISON WEIR

Executive Director - If Americans Knew

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/about_us/whoweare.html

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AMY GOODMAN: For more on the latest news out of the Occupied Territories, we're joined on the phone by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and the Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. He's also the author of several books. His latest, Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East. We're also joined on the phone from Israel by Shir Hever, an economic researcher for the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem.

Professor Rashid Khalidi, your description of what is happening right now in the Occupied Territories and the European Union, the United States, Canada, now Japan cutting off aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority?

RASHID KHALIDI: I think that what's happening is an intensification of the situation that's existed really for the past six years. You have a population basically imprisoned, which is now under sort of a lockdown almost, with almost no movement and with very, very limited ability to engage in economic activity, which is now being further punished by this removal of aid. That's the basic situation. It's gotten worse, I think, because of this terrorist attack the other day, which I think will just enable further pressure to be put on the Palestinian people.

I think the irresponsibility of Palestinian politicians obviously is part of this, but the cruelty of the international community in punishing three-and-a-half million people for the political decisions of its leaders and for their votes is really quite extraordinary, and I think quite despicable. I believe that the responsible power, which is Israel, the occupying power, and the international community have a responsibility to this population, which has absolutely nothing to do with the political aspects, which should be completely separate.


AMY GOODMAN: Shir Hever, you’re an economic researcher for the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem. You're a Jewish Israeli. Your response to the situation right now, the cutoff of aid, and also the attack in Tel Aviv being supported by Hamas?

SHIR HEVER: I think the cutting of the aid shows a deep hypocrisy in the international community and also in Israel, because these same powers were the ones who pressured the Palestinians in the first place to hold a democratic election. And what the Palestinians need was not the democratic election. Of course, democratic elections are important, but what they really need most urgently is the end of the occupation. And after the Palestinians did hold a democratic election, that was supervised by international observers and was deemed to be very democratic and very free, and chose Hamas, the same powers who demanded that they make this election are now punishing Palestinians for their choice in the election. Now, the main question to be asked at this point is whether the Palestinians -- whether the Hamas government will be able to find alternative sources of funding or without these sources of funding, will we see a deterioration of the conflict into more intense and more violence than it used to be so far?

AMY GOODMAN: What has been the response inside Israel to both situations, to the attack and also to Hamas having support cut off?

SHIR HEVER: Well, first of all, it's Israeli policy to cut off the support for the Hamas, and it’s important to know that Israel is obligated by international law to provide money that was in the first place due to the Palestinians. It's taxes from Palestinian workers who, according to the agreements, must be transferred to the Palestinian Authority. It's customs that Israel is collecting for on behalf of the Palestinians and taking a very large percentage to itself. And the fact that Israel is withholding the money is, by itself, illegal, but the Israeli public does not really recognize this fact, and there is a general consensus, at least among the Zionist parties in the newly elected government, that the aid should be stopped to Hamas.

But at the same time, when the alarms about the humanitarian catastrophe that is impending in the Occupied Territories increase, these same parties actually encourage some emergency donations, some emergency assistance, because Israel in a way realizes that it still holds a responsibility over the Palestinian population, even though it's not recognizing this fact. I think we all know that this humanitarian catastrophe will be Israel's fault, and I think the international community knows that and Israel also has to prevent this catastrophe from happening in order not to be accused of killing large amounts of Palestinians by starvation.

AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, Professor Khalidi, Israel's ambassador called Iran, Syria, and Hamas government the new axis of terror and said the recent statements by the P.A. in relation to recent suicide bombings were clear declarations of war. Your response?

RASHID KHALIDI: Well, I mean, he's the ambassador for propaganda in New York. The Israeli ambassador’s job is to stir things up, and he's doing a wonderful job of it. We are on a steep slope, I’m afraid, towards war with Iran in this country, or at least major strikes against Iran, which are acts of war, and I believe that the Israeli military is planning -- I mean, if the Israeli press is to be believed, the Israeli military is planning and may soon be launching much more serious operations in the Occupied Territories. So this is part of the drumbeat to war.

It's rather amusing that he should have mentioned Syria, because when the Bush administration quite recently was considering bringing down the Syrian regime, it was reported, at least in Israel, and quite extensively, that the Israeli government warned the Bush administration against doing this, saying that the alternatives would be much worse, that the situation with Syria is perfectly stable and that however bad the Asad government wants, they would much rather have them there than any of the possible alternatives. So, it's a cynical statement, obviously partly generated by anger at this attack in which nine Israelis were killed in Tel Aviv, but I think largely generated by the need to continue the drumbeat over Iran and to prepare for what is coming insofar as the Occupied Territories are concerned.

I mean -- and I think your other speaker mentioned the point that I don't think anybody should forget. In June, we will begin the 40th year of occupation. This occupation has gone on for two-thirds of the existence of the state of Israel, two generations in the life of Palestinians. It's completely unacceptable. It's illegal. It's become considerably more onerous a burden on the Palestinian people every year. And the last six or seven years have been completely intolerable, and it goes on and on and on, without anybody ever talking about it as the core of the problem. It's not even mentioned as a major problem.

This has to be ended, or we're going to see more and more actions like the one we saw in Tel Aviv. I abhor them. I think that they are the worst possible thing, not just for the Israelis, but for the Palestinians. But I see no way of even beginning to address what drives people to do this unless you can end this occupation. It's been going on for 39 years. In June, it will be the beginning of the 40th year of it, and I just see no movement in the international community, I see nothing in this country, nothing whatsoever to address it. And any time anyone tries to address it in this country, we're screamed down as Israel-haters or we’re screamed down as anti-Semites, and so the occupation rolls on, protected by this kind of rhetoric.

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[Gerry]

Required reading by Lib, who ha his head in the sand.