‘Defending Israel’ neglects power imbalance
by Jane Telfair Stowe
As a peace activist working to end Israel’s illegal and cruel occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, I found Dan Barach’s case for “Defending Israel” (Earlham Word, March 6) to be honest, factual and logically argued. However, leaving aside the long-standing and complicated history, there is much about the current conflict which Dan omits that would make his defense of Israel’s war on Gaza much harder.
Not once is the word “occupation” mentioned although it is key to the current situation. Israel militarily captured parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war which resulted in an ongoing occupation of Palestinian land. This was declared illegal according to international law with a UN mandate for Israel to return the occupied territory. However this law has never been enforced.
Just imagine, said Jean Zaru, a Quaker from Ramallah who spoke at Earlham last week in Stout Meetinghouse, if an army took over one-fourth of Indiana and refused to leave and no one made them leave for over forty years. Any human must resist this infringement of basic human freedoms even if it were done by the most benevolent occupation.
But Israel’s occupation is not benevolent! I know because I was in Israel and the West Bank for two weeks with an Earlham alumni group in 2006. What I saw and heard left me shocked and angry at the Israeli government and army: bulldozed Palestinian homes with no access to permits or compensation while Jews are given subsidized homes on occupied land, olive groves chopped down for “security” while other trees next to the road were left standing, stories of poisoned wells and sheep and physical attacks by Zionist settlers, checkpoint delays and the apartheid Wall built partially inside Palestinian territory, Israeli water fountains and green lawns contrasted with Palestine’s rooftop containers to catch rainwater for drinking and often not enough for showers.
Palestinians, half the population of Israel/Palestine, pay taxes to the Israeli government yet get back only 4 percent for trash pick-up and other services! In one camp refugees could see their old homes but for over a half century were never allowed to visit them. Children who watched their fathers forced from their home in the middle of the night and beaten, taken away or killed often become suicide bombers; only with trauma counseling are some prevented.
The goal of bringing balance to the situation is certainly laudable – if the parties to the conflict are equal enough for balance to be possible – but in this case they are not. The fifth largest militarized country in the world, tiny Israel, with military assistance from the United States, has deprived the Palestinians of their lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness for 60 years. Palestinians have fought back or resisted nonviolently with little help from other Arabs. Only after Israeli policies of breaking the bones of children who threw stones and targeted assassinations to bomb refugee camps did a few Palestinians turn to terrorist tactics.
I’m sure that Dan, Jean Zaru and I all agree that this terrorism is a terrible mistake; rocket attacks and suicide bombs are devastating, escalate and prolong the conflict, use civilians as pawns. However, they are a response to Israel’s fifty years of brutal occupation.
If Israel wants to stop the rockets, there is a much more likely way to do that than by bombing Gaza! If Israel allows food and medicine freely into Gaza and stops their West Bank settlement expansion, there will be strong pressure from moderate Arab and western countries for Hamas to stop the rockets. Hamas moderates accept a two-state solution along the pre-1967 border. But without goodwill gestures from Israel, the PA [Palestinian Authority] and Hamas have no incentive to stop the retaliatory violence.
If Israel truly wants peace and not ethnic cleansing land grabs, then Israeli leaders must allow the free flow of most goods and visitors into Gaza and stop West Bank settlement expansion. Only then will the whole international community put pressure on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to make concessions. It is this international consensus that can get results, as we saw in apartheid South Africa.
Jane Telfair Stowe, Earlham class of 1963, can be reached at stoweja@earlham.edu.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
