Internal Revolt Against Hamas in Gaza Was Already Underway

Sheri Laizer | iKurd.net

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.

But now those Gazans against Hamas are also being killed

In memory of my colleague, James Miller, killed by the IDF in Gaza while making a documentary about Palestinian children in May 2006. [23]

“Gazelles like to die among their people. Falcons don’t care where they die.” [1]
(Ghassan Kanafani)

In their shrinking, decimated homeland, Palestinians have been forced to watch their country eroding at an ever-accentuated rhythm under a murderous Israeli Occupation. Israel’s intention to realise absolute possession of the land has never been in doubt. The voices of moderates have all too often been drowned out through an inappropriately positioned rhetoric of the Holocaust. The Palestinians were not responsible for the Holocaust, but they have experienced a slow-burning version of genocide at the hands of descendants of one genocide turned oppressors – how easily the coin flips.

I had been a witness to the escalation since first living in Egypt, then in different parts of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 1983, returning to see the changes there in 2012 after passing the intervening years in long stints in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

The Mediterranean Sea swells blue and green, vigorous and dynamic against the rocky shore between what is now Israel and Lebanon, oblivious to human strife in a small strip of land once free of borders, presided over by the Phoenicians, Canaanites and Romans. Their venerable ruins still abound. [2] I went and stood on both sides of the Blue Line. I travelled to the far north of Israel to understand the nature of the closed land border crossing that leads from Ras al-Nakhoura in Lebanon to Rosh Hanikra on the Israeli side. (Now, civilians cannot even venture that close.) [3] I had Arab and Israeli friends, Muslims, Jews, Christians and secularists. I met Kurds there for the first time. Very few ethnic Kurds are living in Israel, that are not from the 200,000 or so Jewish Kurdish community from Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Despite their being Muslim and not Jewish, given their historic differences with the Arabs and their Arabisation experience, those that fled war in Turkey and Iraq tended to support Israel rather than the Palestinians. An earlier group had long since become Arabised and the Israeli census treated them as Arabs. Nonetheless, they look to their original Kurdish homeland just as Palestinians in exile look to theirs.

At the time, Israel had just invaded Lebanon. Iraq had been at war with Iran for the past three year and Saddam Hussein was giving shelter and support to Yasser Arafat and Palestinian activists. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini having come to power in Iran backed the Shi’a fundamentalists from Iraq and Lebanon that jointly helped Iran establish Hezbollah. Fundamentalism and sectarianism were on the rise and Lebanon was a major stage for the dramas that unfolded throughout the civil war, the bitter conflict further provoked by the diverging alignments of Iran, Syria and Israel with Lebanese factions.

Assassinated in Beirut by Mossad a decade earlier in 1972, at the age of just 36, Acre-born Palestinian artist and poet, Ghassan Kanafani had been writing of the Palestinian tragedy, of his people’s deeply experienced identity, their intrinsic attachment to their land of olive trees and oranges and their profound sense of loss and resistance since 1948. Kanafani became a fearless spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and an advocate of armed struggle. His words and paintings hailed solidarity with Gaza and stylised representations of political symbols appeared in his political posters of enduring struggle.

Since 1948 and the further land grab since 1967, Palestinians driven into exile have been unable to use the front door keys to their own homes in their occupied land. They keep them still.

Assassinations of thinkers, journalists and aid workers

In just five months since the massive over-response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas operation across the false dividing line from Gaza into the Hebrew state, 70 journalists have been killed in Gaza. They include some of Kanafani’s successors like the poet-activist, professor Refaat Al-Areer, targeted in an Israeli strike on his sister’s apartment on December 6, 2023. Refaat was born in Gaza during the Israeli occupation of the Strip in 1979: his origins coloured his work. Euromed concluded of his killing that the apartment where he was sheltering with his family has been surgically bombed as distinct from the rest of the building where it was located, according to corroborated eyewitness and family accounts. The attack came after weeks of death threats he had been receiving online and by phone from Israeli accounts. In 2014, his home in the Shejaiya neighbourhood had been bombed, killing more than 30 members of his family and the family of his wife.” [4] In the death attack on his sister’s apartment to where he had returned after numerous threats the strike also claimed the lives of his son, Mohammad, his brother Salah, his sister, Asmaa and three of her children, Alaa, Yahia and Mohammed. A neighbour was also killed and Salah’s wife, and two of her children injured.

Horror replicated

Each family has their own story of horror and loss. For every one of the 32,000 killed, more than double that number have been injured, bereaved, traumatised, or now face starvation while the genocidal campaign continues. [5]

Historic opposition to Hamas from within Gaza

Hamas has much internal opposition inside Gaza. Whenever Israel bombed the Strip in response to Hamas rocket attacks Hamas would rebuild the homes of its supporters but refuse to help rebuild the homes of its critics. In what was termed the largest ‘open air prison’ Gazans lived under blockade from 2005 to 23 October 2023 when the total blockade was announced. Palestinians that refused to support Hamas inside the Strip faced random detention and torture from Hamas militants as well as being killed during Israeli strikes. Opposition neighbourhood groups organised several protests against their Hamas overlords against the lack of electricity and basic services. Protestors faced being dragged off to Hamas detention centres for gathering in such protests. A number of huge protests had been organised inside Gaza against Hamas including just months prior to the attack by Israel. [8]

Not only is Israel destroying the present of the Palestinians, the warmongers of Netanyahu and the far right are targeting their future, wiping out the infrastructure of Gaza, the schools, universities, hospitals, mosques and its shining human lights. When it is all over, the Zionists plan to rebuild a new Israeli centre there naming the Palestine Square after the heroic Israeli victory. Israel has so far destroyed and demolished 65,000 housing units and rendered unfit for habitation 290,000 other premises along with hundreds of government buildings, education centres and mosques. [6]

But nothing has been less heroic than the murder of more than 30,000 helpless people in densely populated urban areas before the eyes of the world. Hamas was also democratically elected. Hamas, an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement was originally built up by Israel, to weaken Fatah and the PLO through strengthening Islamic militancy and empowering the mosques. [7] The 1970s fringe group with roots in the Muslim Brotherhood gained popularity as the Israeli oppression deepened in the Occupied Territories and across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel’s assassination of spiritual founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on 22 March 2004 in Gaza City only further strengthened popular support for Hamas. The UNHC in a special sitting in response adopted a resolution that “strongly condemned the continuing grave violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, in particular the tragic assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on 22 March 2004 in contravention of the Hague Convention IV of 1907…the Commission noted with grave concern the implications of such targeted assassinations, liquidation and murder of political leadership by the Israeli occupation forces on the overall situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly the possibility of a fresh wave of violence.

The Commission called upon Israel to accord fullest respect to the principles of international humanitarian law and to desist from all forms of violation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory…[8] Israel ignored it, arguing back at the time “that the Commission had become accustomed to Israel-bashing, and today the forum had clearly reached its nadir by lending a hand and moral standing to terrorism, the most despicable of all evils. One saw a prominent United Nations organ manipulated, not for the first time, and heading toward the establishment of a precedent of lending support to acts of terrorism instead of condemning them unequivocally.

“Palestine, also speaking as a concerned country, said the Commission had often adopted resolutions requiring Israel to put an end to its violation of rights in the occupied Arab territories and to put an end to their operations of liquidation, assassination and extra-judiciary executions, crimes which violated the right to life, and yet the Government of Israel ignored them.” 9 That was twenty years ago. Nothing was done to stop Israel from continuing such operations. When the conflict in Gaza subsides Mossad leaders reportedly plan to assassinate Hamas leaders everywhere that they can be found. [10]

Israel already in violation of 45 resolutions of the UNHRC

For decades, Israel has been in flagrant violation of numerous UN Resolutions, but unlike Iraq, the country has not been forced to bear onerous sanctions, vilification by the international community, constant bombardment and ultimately a cynical, illegal invasion, sectarian carnage and surrendering control of the country to its greatest foe, Iran and its militias, the allies of Hamas.

Of the earliest on November 29,1947: Resolution 181 passed a recommendation for the British Mandate of Palestine between an Arab and a Jewish state with international status for Jerusalem.

Between the war of 1967-1989, the UN Security Council adopted 131 resolutions addressing the conflict.

The UN Human Rights Council had condemned the State of Israel in 45 resolutions by 2023.

The UN General Assembly adopted numerous resolutions wherein it is stated that the strategic relationship between the US and Israel encourages the latter to ‘pursue aggressive and expansionist policies in the conflict with the Palestinians. In response, whenever faced with criticism, the US has adopted the doctrine of John Negroponte, opposing UNSC resolutions if Palestinian militant action was not also criticised despite the disproportionate arms and claims by the Palestinians to self-defence. The conduct of the US has led to a deepening hatred and distrust of American policy across the Arab and Muslim world along with bitter condemnation of America’s double standards.

There is no new champion of peace on the horizon of the calibre of the late Yitshak Rabin. Conversely, thousands of Israeli extremists follow in the path of Rabin’s assassin. The ongoing Nakba aims to ensure Jewish control of all historic Palestine and drive out Palestinian Arabs permanently: “While the ethnic cleansing of Palestine around 1948 was a massive, paradigm altering event, it fits into a pattern that continues to this day and, importantly, it sheds light on what can be expected for the future of the Zionist project in Palestine,” observed one commentator. [11]

UNRWA’s existence and US arms transfers to Israel – hanging in the balance

Visit any Palestinian refugee ‘camp’ – in fact, no longer the “camps” of the exodus but vast sprawling ghettos of the deprived – and you may see maps on walls showing the shrinking areas of Palestinian habitation of Palestine. Under the Occupation, migrants to Israel and lawless Jewish settlers have long since moved in and taken over their homes and their land. Israeli legislation has authorised the demolition of Arab homes and a wide scale land grab. The terrorist rhetoric is frequently employed as justification, as equally the idealised religious claim of a promised Jewish land.

Between 1947-1949, more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly migrated from some 500 towns and villages by Zionist militants. Jews then only represented about a third of the population, but the Zionist blueprint of conquest was already in place. It has been systematically implemented in the intervening 75 years. Those 750,000 refugees now number 5.9 people supported by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) but facing further impoverishment and misery as Israel attempts to undermine the work and identity of UNRWA itself.

The United States has just frozen its funding to UNRWA until 2025, urged by pro-Israeli champions in Congress that seek to make the funding block permanent [12]. Israel is also blocking other forms and means of aid to Gaza and Palestinian IDPs and refugees. The IDF’s operations in Gaza have been targeting UNWRA. The Israeli pro-war media has been seeking to link UNRWA to Hamas to undermine its activities and vital support to Palestinians. Israel claimed Hamas had constructed tunnels under UNRWA offices, that Hamas had infiltrated UNRWA, that Hamas had the control of the hospitals they are bombing etc. A deliberate campaign of sidelining and of attacking UNRWA is being pursued with the aim of slashing UNRWA’s international funding and see the Palestinians permanently weakened and disenfranchised.

Al Jazeera reported last week how US congressional leaders proposed a spending bill that would cut UNRWA funding based on ‘scant evidence’ of involvement with Hamas: “The US has been UNRWA’s largest donor. If passed, the ban would almost certainly lead to a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where UN experts have said famine is looming as a result of Israel’s blockade of the occupied territory…This is the second bill in the US Congress this year that has proposed a prohibition on funds for UNRWA. Last month, the Senate passed foreign assistance legislation that would provide $14bn to Israel while also banning funds to UNRWA…in a report seen by many media outlets last month, UNRWA said Israeli forces tortured several of its staff members to get them to admit to links to Hamas…However, the administration of US President Joe Biden has kept the suspension in place, despite acknowledging on several occasions that UNRWA’s work is essential for Palestinians.” [13]

Aid workers, and not only those acting under the auspices of UNRWA have been directly targeted by the relentless Israeli war machine without compunction. The New Humanitarian reported They have faced fire from tanks, fighter jets, artillery, and snipers. They have been bombed while asleep with their families at home. They have been struck while at work in hospitals, in ambulances, or in aid convoys…As of 20 March, at least 196 humanitarians have been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since October 2023, according to figures compiled by the Aid Worker Security Database (AWDS)… The number of humanitarians killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in only three months last year, 161, is more than the deadliest year ever recorded for aid workers globally, according to preliminary figures…

It’s nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year…One in every 100 UNRWA staff in Gaza has been killed – the highest staff death toll in UN history. [14]

Forcible Starvation

The Director General of the World Health Agency (WHO), when speaking on the crisis in Gaza stressed how health workers are being arrested and detained and aid missions cancelled owing to security and healthcare militarized. The Director General called for an immediate ceasefire and access for aid deliveries which he stated Israel was refusing to allow in. Access is deliberately being blocked and aid is rarely able to be gotten through. Children are already suffering from malnutrition and diet and hygiene related illnesses. Gazans are being forced to eat grass leading to severe digestive problems. About half the population of Gaza or some 1.1 million Palestinians, are suffering “catastrophic” shortages of food with children already dying of starvation in the north, citing a WHO team that visited two hospitals barely functioning. [15]

Wider Risks to Lebanon and Syria

The deliberate destruction unleashed by Israel across Lebanon in the 34-day war of 2006 must be kept in mind when looking at future scenarios and Israel’s threats to its foes. To date since the Gaza conflict erupted, more than 5000 violent clashes have occurred along the Blue Line and Golan heights between Hezbollah and the IDF. [16]

Lebanon is not only caught in the crossfire, but Palestinian refugees exiled there are suffering from UNRWA funding cuts while sharing the vicarious horror of the deadly fate overtaking relatives in Gaza and the West Bank.

While pounding Gaza and driving its people forward like sheep to the slaughter, the IDF has not entirely spared Lebanon or Damascus. In defense of its Syrian ally, Iran has also fielded hundreds of Shi’a militants including die-hard Iraqi proxies of the ‘Axis of Resistance” and IRGC operatives to support Hamas and Hezbollah in an extended theatre of war. Iran has refrained, like Hezbollah, from all out action. Far-right Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, vowed just last month (February 2024) that ‘Israel will keep attacking Hezbollah regardless of what happens in Gaza.’

Israel has also extended its military strikes from southern Lebanon into Baalbek, another stronghold of Hezbollah. A decade ago, the UK government had provided finance and British military expertise to put up some 40 surveillance towers with surveillance cameras near Lebanese army positions along Lebanon’s border with Syria just before ISIS attacked Arsal in the Bekaa valley. Damascus now claims they are being used by British intelligence and shared with Israel. [17]

The UK mainstream media has been strongly biased in favour of Israel in its reporting on Gaza. The Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre of Media Monitoring (CfMM) produced a statistical analysis report finding that “Israel’s rights” were insistently emphasised, often resulting in the exclusion and erasure of the rights of the Palestinians. Emotive language was consistently used for Israeli victims of violence, but not as much for the Palestinians. Representatives and supporters of Israel were allowed to dehumanise Palestinians on air, with no considerable pushback from news presenters and talk show hosts.” [18] Anti-Muslim feeling was also provoked leading to a rise in hate crime. [19]

The position is far worse in the United States, as in Israel itself where papers like the Jerusalem Post churn out daily hate rhetoric against Palestinians.

Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, head of the religious Zionism Party, called in January for Israeli settlers to occupy Gaza, advocating a “solution to encourage the emigration” of Gaza’s Palestinian Arabs, such that they would never to be allowed to return after repatriation to other countries just as happened during the Nakba. The proposal received strong condemnation from the US, UK, Germany and its seven allies, as well as France. Forced population transfers are a violation of the Geneva Convention.

The French Foreign Ministry, perhaps influenced by France’s historic colonial ties to the wider Levant, retorted: “it is not up to the Israeli government to decide where the Palestinians should live on their lands. The future of the Gaza Strip and its inhabitants will be part of a unified Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel.” But the two Israeli ministers intensified their calls on social media. [20]

The UNSC vote for a lasting ceasefire passed 14-0 on Monday, 25 March, as the US refrained from using its veto as on past occasions, but meanwhile the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, is visiting Washington and pressing for more arms. [21]

Democrat Party Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes of New York speaking in the House of Representatives urged the suspension of weapons transfers to Israel, blasting Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza and the obstruction of aid relief, imploring, “The time is now to force compliance with US law and the standards of humanity …to suspend the transfer of US weapons to the Israeli government in order to stop and prevent further atrocities. Honouring our alliances does not mean facilitating mass killing…”.

In the words of Refaat al-Areer in a poem written not long before his untimely death in Gaza, “If I must die”:

If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale

*Translated by the Iraqi poet, Sinan Antoon (Author of Baghdad Blues and other books). [22]

Sheri Laizer, a Middle East and North African expert specialist and well known commentator on the Kurdish issue. She is a senior contributing writer for iKurd.net. More about Sheri Laizer see below.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.

Copyright © 2024 iKurd.net. All rights reserved

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