Internationally respected Israeli Journalist Amira Hass, is morally outraged by Israel’s genocidal response to the “surprise” attack by Hamas fighters on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank this past October 7th. (1) She is distressed by Netanyahu’s plans to militarily invade Gaza, as well as Jordan and Lebanon—ridding these countries of their large Palestinian refugee populations—along with “cleansing” the West Bank of all Palestinian residents.
But, she asks, What did Hamas expect?! Didn’t they realize that they were providing Israel with the perfect pretext for to complete its threat to cleanse the former Palestinian lands “from the river to the sea” of those indigenous people completely. These Hamas militants, caged in the tiny barricaded “open air prison” of Gaza for the past three generations, clearly expected that the rest of the world would care once they knew and saw what Palestinians have suffered under Israeli military-police rule in Gaza for decades. Anticipating Israeli brutal repression and retaliation on millions of innocent people–1/2 of them small children–the “civilized” world would, of course, protest and demand human rights for Palestinians, and—after 75 years of denial of their humanity in the land where they had previously lived and prospered, co-existed with Christians, Muslims Jews, etc., for centuries prior to 1948—an opening of the prison called Gaza to the rest of the world. (2) (3) As Israeli Professor Ilan Pappe said when interviewed on October 15, 2023, Hamas hoped that “this kind of crying out would wake up the world to interfere. So far it hasn’t worked.” (4) On another occasion 4 days later at the University of Exeter, Ilan Pappe stressed that the biggest issue dominating Palestinian concerns and media discourse is the subject of Palestinian political prisoners: “This is the most burning issue: one million Palestinians have spent time in Israeli jails since 1969.” (5)
Having worked with released citizens of the US prison system, and witnessed their struggles to comprehend the “civilized” world upon re-entry, I could imagine one failing to grasp the current reality of today’s worldwide repression of human rights, free speech, and militaristic fervor we are experiencing in the West. Those in the US who protest the expanding US military, who demonstrate for Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police, Environmental Justice, Medical Care and Housing for All, as well as for Free Palestine, experience repressive reaction and lack of concern repeatedly. Asking representatives and leaders of the largest imperialist governments–like the USA, for example–who are making billions of dollars in profits from the manufacture, distribution, and sale of military technology and weapons of mass destruction—to instead seek peaceful alternatives to wars resulting in the death of our people and our planet, is asking them to commit political suicide.
(1) https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/20/israeli_journalist_amira_hass_daughter_of
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine: Ilan Pappe
Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli: Mazin B. Qumsiyeh,
(4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6TI2ekYEg0
(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OcjOP8iUCU
MARY LYNN CRAMER, MA, MSW, LICSW, Senior Citizen, has a background in economics and clinical social work, and peace activism. She can be reached at [email protected]
