Free Palestine
Solly Rakgomo | Friday February 10, 2017 11:23
Palestine, along with much of the civilized world, believes that Israel has committed, and continues to commit, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
These include, but are not limited to the following: bombing of schools, hospitals, mosques, residential neighborhoods, United Nations refugee centers and press offices; the arrest without charge of Palestinian men, women and children; extrajudicial killings of Palestinian men, women and children; the occupation of the West Bank; the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The list goes on.
Israel states that for every crime it is accused of, it does its own internal investigation.
In all but a handful of cases, this investigation exonerates Israel, and any Israeli involved.
Now, any reasonable person might say that, if the henhouse has been raided, it should be someone other than the fox, who countless witnesses saw plundering the henhouse, that is responsible for investigating.
The fox, in all likelihood, will not find himself culpable.
Thus it is with Israel. The U.S under several presidents, has fostered the wasteful myth of negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
There are of course two major problems with this plan. First, Palestine doesn’t need to negotiate anything.
International law is clear: Palestine’s and Israel’s borders are those that were established prior to the 1967 war.
One may object to the initial partitioning of Palestine in 1948 but respecting international law, one must accept the reality of Israel.
However, if Israel isn’t going to respect international law in the context of Palestine, why should anyone respect it in the context of Israel?
Secondly, in order for two parties to negotiate, each must have something that the other wants, that can only be obtained by surrendering something it has. Israel takes whatever it wants from Palestine with nearly complete impunity.
But regardless of that, negotiations are completely unnecessary. And now, dire consequences are predicted for Palestine if it proceeds with action against Israel in the ICC. It is hoped that the weak, spineless Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, recognizes that dire consequences will result if Palestine doesn’t proceed.
And now to the crux of the matter that is so puzzling to me is this. If Israel has nothing to hide, why not welcome an investigation into war crimes allegations? Why is the U.S, that wealthy puppet of Israel, so willing to condemn a poverty-stricken, occupied nation in favor of a wealthy one? If Israel adheres to international law, the Geneva Conventions regarding occupation, including care of the occupied people, residency of citizens of the occupier, etc., why not let the ICC show the world how lawful and magnanimous Israel is? Why, then, does Israel recoil from any independent investigation of its actions in Palestine? And why does the U.S. fear any such investigation?
The U.S. and Israel are two nations that haven’t joined the ICC, mainly because they know they and their soldiers have committed war crimes, and they don’t wish to be held accountable.
When you are the largest and most powerful nation on the planet, you don’t need to play by the rules, but you can freely force other nations to follow them.
And, if you have a ‘special relationship’ with another nation, you can cause it to be excused from following the rules as well.
The U.S. Congress in 2015 actually included in foreign aid legislation that any funds to Palestine would be frozen, if any action against Israel was initiated.
Enshrining this in national law is most bizarre, but we mustn’t forget the power of the Apartheid Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
This most disreputable of lobby groups donates millions of dollars annually to Congress members who dance to its apartheid tune, and when it comes to greed, members of Congress have no peer.
The same might be said about their lack of integrity. One wonders what the U.S. government wants from Palestine.
The U.S. condemns any acts of violence by Palestinians against the ‘poor, defenseless’ Israelis, who have all the most advanced weaponry that the world has to offer, and now is also condemning diplomatic actions to achieve just goals.
International law provides that an occupied people have the right to oppose the occupation by any means possible, but apparently that U.S. just wants Palestinians to give up their entire country, and disappear off the face of the earth. Well, that’s simply not going to happen.
Regardless of what the completely ineffective Mr. Abbas decides to do, worldwide resistance to the brutal occupation of Palestine will continue, until Palestine is once again free. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen, despite all the efforts of the U.S. government to thwart it. One day Palestine shall forever be free.