December 30, 2008

ZIONIST ISRAEL’S CRIMES ARE NOT NEW

By Dr. Mohamed Elmasry

The inflicting of war-crime acts and crimes against humanity is not new
to the history of Zionist Israel.

Zionism -- for those still confused by the relentless media “spin”
deliberately clouding the issue -- is a neo-fascist ideology based on
giving a “birthright” guarantee to Jews anywhere on the planet to settle in Palestine.

Zionists have resorted to any means available to implement this
discriminatory and openly racist ideology – including mass killing,
terrorism, forced displacement, destruction of property and ethnic
cleansing – in their policy of oppressing native Palestinians in every
aspect of their day-to-day struggle for survival. Israel’s recent heavy
aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza strip is only the latest act
designed to accomplish an evil policy designed to inflict death,
destruction and misery on the entire population.

The world must be reminded yet again that the artificially created
Zionist state of Israel has no constitution. This was not a historical
oversight by any means; having a constitution would require the country
to define its borders and to state categorically who meets the criteria
of citizenship. Thus it has proven convenient for Israel to “postpone”
the issue of constitutional legitimacy while its government continually
pushes to expand the border regions in order to accommodate more and
more illegal Jewish settlements.

The Gaza strip is a small ribbon of land some 40 kms in length and
ranging in width between 6 and 12 km. Crammed into this tiny area are
1.5 million native Palestinians living in deplorable conditions; many
contemporary historians have aptly compared Gaza to the cramped and
destitute Warsaw Ghetto of World War II.

Zionist Israel has demonstrated no inclination whatsoever to give these
people their liberty. Instead it chooses to treat Gaza as a mass
concentration camp. The IDF occupational ground forces may have been
gone since 2005, but Zionist Israel still controls all of Gaza’s ports,
border-crossing points, and its sky. And as if economic and humanitarian
strangulation were not enough, it has launched the most violent military
siege in recent decades; if it continues against a virtually weaponless
population, the result can only be a genocidal death toll.

Gaza has, in fact, been reduced to a new Auschwitz: the only difference
– a nightmarish irony -- is that Jews are now playing the role of
Hitler’s ruthless SS.

It is fully expected by international observers that the rising death
toll in Gaza will soon top 500 and that thousands more will be wounded;
many more will die because basic medical facilities will not be
available to treat them in time. Any way one looks at it, this entire
Israeli campaign is a horrific war crime and an unjustifiable crime
against humanity. Far from seeking out and damaging so-called Hamas
operational centres, the bombing attacks have targeted elementary
schools, market-places, drug stores, administrative buildings, colleges,
private homes, mosques, cultural institutions, roads, businesses, basic
infrastructure, etc.

Anyone who knows even a little of the ugly history of Zionism in
Palestine since the 1920s is shocked at how easily and conveniently the
West has tolerated this planned genocide of Palestinians for so long.
Instead, the world’s attention focused on supporting and celebrating
Zionist calls for Jews to “return home,” which they did – individually
and in groups, by boat, air and road.

The “repatriated” masses soon joined the Zionist military and were
thoroughly indoctrinated to hate the native Palestinians, as well as all
other Arabs and Muslims worldwide, in that order. They created armed
settlements, terrorizing the natives, displacing their families and
killing whoever resisted eviction, including women and children.

The bloody history of Zionist Jews in Palestine is a shameful mistake
and hiding its facts away from generations of Westerners is the ugliest
disinformation campaign ever waged in human history. Never were so many
crimes against humanity covered so thoroughly and for so long.

International law gives native Palestinians the right to resist the
41-year occupation, but Israeli Zionist lobbyist propaganda publicly
blames the victims at every turn and Israel’s government continues to
ignore and even dismiss all legal claims and UN resolutions against it.

Zionist Israel and the Israeli Zionist lobbyists in the West have
claimed continuously that the current genocidal onslaught in Gaza is
“only a war against Hamas" and that it was caused only “by the firing of
Palestinian rockets on Israel.” This is just one more lie to add to the
long list of distortions and misinformation being promulgated about
native Palestinians.

Hamas has repeatedly stated that it is ready and willing to stop all
firing of home-made rockets – its only effective form of as a form of
resistance -- if Zionist Israel would lift the deadly blockade that is
starving and killing the Palestinian people. Zionist Israel has
repeatedly said "No."

Even during a six-month ceasefire, which Hamas observed, Zionist Israel
killed 49 Palestinians. Not a single Israeli was killed.

Amira Hass of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz wrote; "Israel's (current)
war is not against Hamas, it's against all the Palestinians."

As part of its Nazi-like blockade of Gaza, Zionist Israel has turned
away boat after boat carrying humanitarian aid in the form of food,
medicines and other basic supplies desperately needed by the women, men
and children of Gaza. As a result untold hundreds, maybe thousands, of
Palestinians have perished because they were denied access to medical
care or medicine.

Zionist Israel claims it wants to live in peace since ending the formal
military occupation of Gaza in 2005. But the truth in action is anything
but peace-seeking. The land occupation of Gaza was replaced with an even
harsher blockade and the continued full control of Gazan skies,
coastline and border crossings, even the Rafah lifeline crossing with Egypt.

In effect, Zionist Israel has given native Palestinians in Gaza one of
two obscene choices: to die of starvation as a result of the blockade,
or be exterminated by the Israeli-American war machine.

This latest escalation of Zionist Israel’s genocidal onslaught against
native Palestinians must stop. And the fascist, racist ideology of
Zionism must be fully exposed and to people of conscience everywhere,
both Jews and non-Jews. The world must see Zionism for what it is and
categorically reject it as the ethical travesty it is. Then, and only
then, can there be any chance for peace to prevail in a place once
called “the Holy Land.”

(Dr. Mohamed Elmasry is Professor Emeritus of Computer Engineering at
the University of Waterloo; co-founder and past president, The Canadian
Islamic Congress and Editorial Board member, The Canadian Charger. He
can be reached at elmasry@thecanadiancharger.com)

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