Israel and Gaza - a testament to terrible failure

The bombing of Gaza is a testament to international policy failure under which the rights of the Palestinian people have been systematically trampled.

Like millions of others who stare in horror at their TV screens as yet another explosion lights up the Gaza night sky, I am filled with pessimism rather than hope, anger rather than a sense that justice being done. I read about the historical layers of deceit and obfuscation, the spin and double-speak and wonder how the Israel-Palestine conflict might ever come to some sort of acceptable resolution. I recognise too the historical antecedents of Zionism, the self protective reactions that have often underpinned Israeli foreign policy, and the deep historical irony of what Israel has done to the Palestinian people. I see also the rockets fired by Hammas and the threat posed by suicide bombers whose actions only generate more bloodshed and hostility. My sense is that simple calls to peace will not work until there is a will to strip back the historical layers that have led to the current situation.

Given that the very foundations of the Israeli state rest on the myth of peaceful or heroic takeover there is every reason to unpack official historical memory. For instance, it would seem important to acknowledge that where there are now theme parks, Palestinian villages once stood, and that the pitiful conditions under which the Palestinian people now live is a result of what happened from 1948 onwards. To get to this point of acknowledgement, to recognise the depths of an enduring historical injustice is a process that seems unachievable at this point, especially in the white heat of on-going bloody conflict.

Antony Lowenstien’s My Israel Question - a “controversial” book if there ever was one - graphically illustrates the difficulties in getting to the point of what might reasonably be regarded as a “debate” on the Israel/Palestinian conflict - there is too much “othering”, selective historical memory, self interest and bad faith for that. Equally however, ceaseless brutal repression and violent resistance are, self evidently, not the roads to peace, nor is the silencing of history or the duplicity of what so often underscores peace negotiations.

Coda: The establishment of the National Information Directorate - a sort of governmental clearing house for media output - signals Israel’s intention to win the propaganda war over the Palestinians. The latest conflict has been depicted across Israeli government ministries as a war of national defence mounted against ruthless terrorists. The other side of the story is that an occupied people feel they have the right to resistance. The rights and wrongs of both these claims will not receive equal air space.