by
Joyce Chediac
The
Israeli government killed more than 60 Palestinian people
demonstrating at the Gaza border, and wounded 12,000. According to
Amnesty International, “Eyewitness testimonies, video and
photographic evidence suggest that many were deliberately killed or
injured while posing no immediate threat to the Israeli soldiers.”
Israel
and the U.S are trying to hide the reality of this massacre and war
crimes against unarmed population by shifting the focus and the
responsibility to Hamas, the Palestinian organization which
administers the government in Gaza. The U.S. corporate media are
willingly assisting in this vilification of Hamas, often repeating as
fact the exact same boldface lies found in Israeli and U.S. press
releases, and even in the exact words. Here are a few.
Lie
one: Hamas is responsible for the death of more than 60
Palestinians by irresponsibly encouraging them to demonstate at
Gaza’s border with Israel.
Lest
there be any confusion, Palestinians weren’t killed by Hamas, but
by Israeli soldiers under the orders of Israeli generals with
Remington M24 sniper rifles gifted by the Pentagon. The media blames
Hamas for everything that happens in Gaza because it is the
government there. In the same way, Assad is blamed in the press for
every death in Syria, even though the U.S. armed and trained the
opposition. And the Maduro government of Venezuela is blamed by CNN
and Fox for the economic hardship there even though Washington has
economically sanctioned that country, and funds a rightwing
opposition.
Lie
two: Hamas is a terrorist organization that doesn’t recognize
Israel’s ‘right to exist.’
The
country that is not allowed it’s “right to exist” is Palestine.
Since the Oslo Accords, there have been 19 years of U.S.-brokered
talks between Israel and the Palestine Authority to establish a
Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. During the time Israeli
has moved 100,000 settlers to the West Bank, and steadily annexed
huge tracts of land so that on a map the parts that remain under
Palestinian control look like the holes in Swiss cheese. Israeli
troops storm anywhere at will, regularly killing, arresting and
jailing Palestinians for indeterminate periods. Israel has waged
major war on Gaza twice, and is strangling it with a siege.
Palestinians
have also raised having a democratic secular Palestine with the right
of return for refugees and equal rights for all. Israel has not only
rejected this idea, but declared itself to be an exclusively Jewish
state even though 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Palestinian.
Israel prevents Palestinian refugees from returning to their land and
homes simply because they are not Jewish. Israeli apartheid has been
declared a war crime under international law, and called worse than
South African Apartheid by South African activists. In truth Israel
won’t even recognize that Palestinian people have a “right to
exist.”
Lie
three: Hamas called the demonstrations and is responsible for
provoking Israel.
The
protest was a mass outpouring, begun by an individual, marking the
70th anniversary of the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from the
country and the replacement of Palestine with Israel. The goal of the
protest was to end to the siege of Gaza and to exercise the people’s
right to return to lands just over Gaza’s border which was owned by
their families before the expulsion 70 years ago. The protest was
endorsed by and participated in by every group political group in
Gaza, and civil, legal, and social service groups. Tens of thousands
of people came out to the encampment and protests, from the very old
to the very young. People lived there, there were cultural and
children’s programs, there were marriages there.
Lie
four: Armed Hamas terrorist were cowardardly hiding among the
people.
The
protests were heavily covered by Palestinian and other media, even
though Israeli discouraged this by killing two reporters wearing
clothing clearly identifying them as press, and wounding many other
reporters. Participants posted many photos and videos of the events
on social media. Some Palestinians used slingshots to hurl stones in
the direction of the Israel snipers, behind two fences, earth
fortifications, and tens or even hundreds of yards away. Only one
side had the guns. NO one was “hiding among the people.” This WAS
the Palestinian people.
Lie
five: Israel was legitimately defending its borders.
Israel
is the only state in the world which has never declared where its
borders are. This is because it has plans to expand permanently into
Arab lands. At one time or another it has occupied and/or annexed
all of historic Palestine as well as territory of all of its
neighboring countries—Syria (the Golan Heights have been annexed),
Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. Boarders, it seems, are only for the
Palestinian and other Arab people.
In much
the same way, U.S. corporations and military penetrate and bomb
countries, violating borders at will. But when the victims of this
devatation seek shelter in the U.S., they are “violating U.S.
borders.”
Lie
six: Hamas is using the demonstrations to deflect from its own
incompetence and failure to provide a decent life in Gaza.
One does
not have to agree everything Hamas does to know that Israel is
responsible for the terrible living conditions in Gaza. Israel, not
Hamas has besieged that strip of land for 11 years. Israel, not
Hamas, bombarded Gaza in 2011, and again in 2014, killing thousands
of civilians, including many children, and deliberately destroying
much housing and the civilian infrastructure. It’s Israel that has
reduced Gaza to only four hours of electricity a day, and denies it
essential food items and even clean drinking water.
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