 |
|||
|
|
The Unitarian Church of All Souls • 1157 Lexington Avenue • New York, NY 10021 email: peacetaskforcenyc@yahoo.com
Archives
|
To view archived materials, please click on one of the links below: |
|
THE GAZA WAR CRIME
A Talk by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti February 12, 2009 Review by Phoebe Hoss It was a privilege, on the afternoon of February 12, to hear a talk by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. This distinguished Palestinian was speaking at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs under the auspices of the Arab Student Association. In 2005, Dr. Barghouti was a candidate for president of the Palestinian National Authority and finished second to Mahmoud Abbas, the current president. He was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006 and served as minister of information in the short-lived Palestinian Unity government of 2007. Neither a moderate nor an extremist, Dr. Barghouti is firmly committed to a nonviolent agenda. In his opening remarks, he recalled the Columbia professor and literary critic Edward Said, who was an ardent Palestinian, and wished to speak in his spirit. As head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, Dr. Barghouti recently visited Gaza and was deeply shocked, he told us, by the extreme devastation that Israel’s massive air strikes–between December 27, 2008, and January 8, 2009–had caused both to the people and to the property of Gaza. Noting the gap between the public’s knowledge of what happened in Gaza and the actuality, he aimed to fill it with a video of the latter. He showed scenes of houses, schools, and other buildings demolished and glimpses of people’s terrible injuries. Dr. Barghouti pointed out that, with 1.5 million people in Gaza’s 120 square miles–the most dense population in the world–there was no way that Israel’s air strikes could avoid hitting many civilians. Houses in which people were forced to gather for safety were bombarded; in one such instance, forty-two people were killed instantly. Of the 1,350 Palestinians killed in the air strikes, 142 were children; while 1,855 children were injured. Moreover, 5,300 homes were completely destroyed, as were the last remaining factories; 20,000 more homes can’t be lived in, and whole neighborhoods were demolished. In the buffer zone around Gaza, Dr. Barghouti said Israel destroyed so many people and buildings as to constitute ethnic cleansing. During the attacks, only 14 Israelis were killed. These air strikes involved war crimes, Dr. Barghouti believes, and should be investigated by an international commission. In them, Israel violated international law in five ways: 1. Inflicting collective punishment. 2. Using prohibited weapons, such as white phosphorus and live bullets, which have a chemical material that destroys human tissue. 3. Targeting civilians and medical facilities. 4. Targeting the press: no one was allowed to act freely or to enter Gaza. 5. Targeting humanitarians while they were trying to provide assistance. Dr. Barghouti sees the window closing on the possibility of a two-state solution. He feels that the recent Israeli election, in which the country seems to be moving to the right, indicates that it is accepting apartheid status. As things stand now, Israel’s Wall and its many checkpoints are ghettoizing the Palestinians. Actions should be taken now, he feels, for the sake of both people. The choice is Israel’s. In the question-and-answer session, Dr. Barghouti pointed out that Israel is the fourth largest military/industrial complex in the world, and needs to be pressured from the outside, from the United States. He approved the choice of George Mitchell. To a question about how Israel could have responded otherwise to Hamas and the thousands of rockets it has fired from Gaza, Dr. Barghouti noted that it was Israel that had violated the ceasefire on November 4, 2008. Moreover, the rockets were homemade; and no Israeli was killed. He deplored violence, however, whether Palestinian or Israeli. Dr. Barghouti strongly recommended nonviolent protest in the form of divestment and sanctions, a means that worked with South Africa. No country should buy military equipment from Israel. As for whether there should be one state or two states, Dr. Barghouti says one would be easier to administer if every citizen were considered equal. But without that or without a state of their own, he affirmed, the Palestinians can’t and won’t accept enslavement or give up their right to struggle. He observed that the most difficult thing for the Jewish people to accept is that “they’re sitting in the chair of the oppressor.” It’s a human issue: we are equal human beings with equal rights. As for the Palestinians, Dr. Barghouti called for a unifying movement of all Palestinians. He feels there is change. And that the people need to be proactive, not reactive. For those interested, CNN has online a long interview with Dr. Barghouti called “Palestine’s Guernica and the Myths of Israel.” |