[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Palestine Chronicle - Europe and Gaza
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:33:26 -0500
Dear Readers:
The situation in Gaza is bleaker than every before. The utterly difficult
reality is bordering on slow genocide, argues Palestinian intellectual and
chronicle contributor Omar Barghouti; his latest article: European Collusion in
Israels Slow Genocide, is our feature article for today, and is included
below;
Make sure to visit PalestineChronicle.com for further updates and analysis on
the situation in Gaza,
PalestineChronicle.com site admin
PALESTINECHRONICLE.COM FEATURE ARTICLE
European Collusion in Israels Slow Genocide
By Omar Barghouti
Special to PalestineChronicle.com
The European Union, Israels largest trade partner in the world, is watching
by as Israel tightens its barbaric siege around Gaza, collectively punishing
1.5 million Palestinian civilians, condemning them to devastation, and visiting
imminent death upon hundreds of kidney dialysis and heart patients, prematurely
born babies, and all others dependent on electric power for their very
survival.
By freezing fuel and electric power supplies to Gaza, Israel, the occupying
power, is essentially guaranteeing that clean water -- only by name, as
Gazas water is perhaps the most polluted in the whole region, after decades of
Israeli theft and abuse -- will not be pumped out and properly distributed to
homes and institutions; hospitals will not be able to function adequately,
leading to the eventual death of many, particularly the most vulnerable;
whatever factories that are still working despite the siege will now be forced
to close, pushing the already extremely high unemployment rate even higher;
sewage treatment will come to a halt, further polluting Gazas precious little
water supply; academic institutions and schools will not be able to provide
their usual services; and lives of all civilians will be severely disrupted, if
not irreversibly damaged. And Europe is apathetically watching.
Princeton academic Richard Falk considered Israels siege a prelude to
genocide, even before this latest crime of altogether cutting off energy
supplies. Now, Israels crimes in Gaza can accurately be categorized as acts of
genocide, albeit slow. According to Article II of the 1948 UN Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the term is defined as:
[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
.
Clearly, Israels hermetic siege of Gaza, designed to kill, cause serious
bodily and mental harm, and deliberately inflicts conditions of life calculated
to bring about partial and gradual physical destruction, qualifies as an act of
genocide, if not all out genocide yet. And the EU is suspiciously silent.
But why accuse Europe, in particular, of collusion in this crime when almost
the entire international community is not lifting a finger, and the UNs
obsequious Secretary General, who surpassed all his predecessors in obedience
to the US government, is pathetically paying only lip service? In addition,
what of the US government itself, Israels most generous sponsor that is
directly implicated in the current siege, especially after president George
Bush, on his recent visit, gave a hardly-subtle green light to Israeli prime
minister, Ehud Olmert, to ravage Gaza? Why not blame the Palestinians quiet
Arab brethren, particularly Egypt -- the only country that can immediately
break the siege by reopening the Rafah crossing and supplying through it the
necessary fuel, electric power and emergency supplies? And finally, why not
blame the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, whose subservient and
visionless leader openly boasted in a press conference its complete agreement
with Bush on all matters of substance?
After Israel, the US is, without doubt, the guiltiest party in the current
crime. Under the influence of a fundamentalist, militaristic, neo-conservative
ideology that has taken over its helms of power and an omnipotent Zionist lobby
that is unparalleled in its sway, the US is in a category by itself. It goes
without saying that the PA, the UN, as well as Arab and international world
governments maintaining business as usual with Israel should all be held
accountable for acquiescing, whether directly or indirectly, to Israels crimes
against humanity in Gaza. It is also true that each one of the above bears the
legal and moral responsibility to intervene and apply whatever necessary
pressure to stop the crime before thousands perish. But the EU commands a
unique position in all this. It is not only silent and apathetic; in most
European countries Israel and Israeli institutions are currently welcomed and
sought after with unprecedented warmth, generosity and deference in
all fields -- economic, cultural, academic, athletic, etc. For instance,
Israel was invited as the guest of honor to a major book fair in Turin, Italy.
Israeli-government funded films are featuring in film festivals all over the
continent. Israeli products, from avocadoes and oranges to hi-tech security
systems, are flooding European markets like never before. Israeli academic
institutions are enjoying a special, very lucrative, association agreement with
the relevant organs in the EU. Israeli dance groups, singing bands and
orchestras are invited to European tours and festivals as if Israel were not
only a normal, but in effect a most favoured, member of the so-called
civilized world. Official Europes once lacklustre embrace of Israel has
turned into an intense, open and enigmatic love affair.
If Europe thinks it can thus repent for its Holocaust against its own Jewish
population, it is in fact shamefully and consciously facilitating the committal
of fresh acts of genocide against the people of Palestine. But Palestinians, it
appears, do not count for much, as we are viewed not only by Israel, but also
by its good old white sponsors and allies as lesser, or relative, humans. The
continent that invented modern genocide and was responsible for massacring in
the last two centuries more human beings, mostly relative humans, than all
other continents put together is covering up crimes that are reminiscent in
quality, though certainly not in quantity, of its own heinous crimes against
humanity.
In no other international affair, perhaps, can the European establishment be
accused of being as detached from and indifferent to its own public opinion.
While calls for boycotting Israel as an apartheid state are slowly but
consistently spreading among European civil society organizations and trade
unions, drawing disturbing parallels to the boycott of South African apartheid,
European governments are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves from
the overtly complicit US position vs. Israel. Even European clichés of
condemnation and expressing deep concern have become rarer than ever
nowadays. Moreover, Israels relentless and defiant violation of Europes own
human rights laws and conditions are ignored whenever anyone questions whether
Israel should continue to benefit from its magnanimous association agreement
with the EU despite its military occupation, colonization and horrific record
of human rights abuse against its Palestinian victims. If this is not
complicity, what is?
Morality aside, sinking Gaza into a sea of darkness, poverty, death and
despair cannot bode well for Europe. By actively propping up an environment
conducive to the rise of fanaticism and desperate violence near its borders,
Europe is foolishly inviting havoc to its doorstep. Instead of heeding -- or at
least seriously considering -- calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions
against apartheid Israel, adopted by virtually the entire spectrum of
Palestinian civil society, it may soon have to reckon with uncontainable forces
of irrational and indiscriminate violence and its resulting chaos.
It seems European elites are currently determined never to oppose Israel, no
matter what crimes it commits. It is as if the bellowing -- and increasingly
hypocritical -- slogan upheld by Jewish survivors of European genocide, Never
Again!, is now espoused by European elites with one difference: the two
letter, s and t, are added at the end.
- The writer is an independent Palestinian political analyst and founding
member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of
Israel (www.PACBI.org); he contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com
ABDUL WAHID OSMAN BELAL
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