Reality and Reflection
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 29 Jan 2024
Mazin Qumsiyeh | Popular Resistance – TRANSCEND Media Service
25 Jan 2024 – Day 110 of the Genocide
Quote of the day:“We came and turned the native Arabs into tragic refugees. And still we have to slander and malign them, to besmirch their name. Instead of being deeply ashamed of what we did and trying to undo some of the evil we committed…we justify our terrible acts and even attempt to glorify them.”— Nathan Chofshi, Jewish Newsletter, NY 9 Feb 1959, cited in Erskine Childers, ‘The Other Exodus,‘ in Spectator, London 12 May 1961
REALITY: Global movement is still growing to end the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice is expected to issue an injunction for Israeli forces to stop the slaughter. But the slaughter will continue at a pace determined by artificial “intelligence”. There is increased isolation of the US, UK and German governments supporting the genocide. Now over 1% of the population of Gaza (civilians) have been killed and another 2.2% injured. 119 journalists have been murdered by the Israeli occupation to attempt to silence the media but stories keep coming out. Hospitals targeted and about 5% of the medical staff are still offering very basic services. >70% of buildings destroyed. Medical services are all but non-existent and people are dying of famine and disease (Hepatitis A and Leishmania and other diseases) and even smaller injuries. Hundreds of Gaza women had miscarriages due to this war and others died in childbirth due to lack of medical care. Israeli leaders and much of the public still cheers on the genocide and even proudly boast of the killing of women and children. The US government and the corporate Western media know but try in vain to hide this reality and defend the indefensible.
REFLECTIONS: I have been active for human rights for 45 years (started with South Africa actually). I published over 180 articles in peer-reviewed journals, over 600 other articles, and many books. I was interviewed over 2000 times and gave over 5500 talks to audiences of all backgrounds. When I reflect on what I witness and studied and spoke about, new thoughts come to me. Karl Marx’s made a statement: “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce”. The US/Israel partnership in this latest genocide is both a tragedy and a farce. But I also am very optimistic that history is at a major bend. Hundreds of genocides were committed in the past few hundred years but this is different. It is broadcast live, it is happening when the globe is connected like never before (especially social media), it is happening when the dominant power is floundering as it tries to serve political interests and lobbies and a new world order is being built (see below).
Israeli PM Netanyahu is hoping to stay in power for a few more months while losing Israeli soldiers in Gaza and bombing civilians . By that time the Israeli army would have killed the remaining hostages and the world would lose interest again in the 75 year suffering of the Palestinian people and his lobbies and western media could reset things as before (US rescues Israel by using its veto power so it does not answer to genocide). The Israeli public would also presumably lose interest and the fascist right can be satisfied. But he does not understand the change in global power dynamics, the unprecedented global solidarity with Palestine, the UNIQUENESS of this holocaust, and the fact that the fear factor globally was already shattered and will not come back again (evidence Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, South Africa, Latin America, global south in general, and even governments in Europe). As for the uniqueness of this genocide/holocaust, I wrote about this before: broadcast live, supported by hypocritical western governments, open admission of intent by its leading figures, attempt to create a “clash of civilizations “; the latter actually mobilizing Muslims and Christians and Jews sand others FOR PALESTINE. Thus, the Zionist apartheid regime is accelerating the demise of this failed experiment at colonialism and racism called the “Jewish State of Israel”. They will help accelerate our work for one democratic state, the only solution to the mess created by Zionism: see https://onestatecampaign.org/en/That Apartheid Israel’s biggest defender is the United State Government is not an asset but a LIABILITY because the United States:
- bombed 20 countries in 20 years,
- has over 1000 military bases including also secret detention centers in at least 80 countries (whose public decries this),
- has a history of buying developing country governments through the machinations of the IMF and World Bank, impoverishing people while enriching bureaucratic and unrepresentative governments ensured people resentment and frequent creation of new governments that listens to the will of the people and despise the US government,
- hegemony was overextended and showed its hypocrisy by undermining international law and this became most blatant in supporting the genocide and destruction of the Palestinian people (with money, weapons, special forces, diplomatic cover etc).
These issues contribute to the decline of the US empire whose share in the global economy declined from 40% to 24%. China’s share grew from 2.4% in 1980 to 18.5% today. We may add that the Zionist lobby’s weaponizing the Jewish holocaust and using terms like “anti-Semitic” and “self hating” to describe human rights advocates is back-firing. The description I gave before https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2023/11/israel-lobby-in-usa.html on the role of the lobby is becoming more exposed. The US public will rise in arms once they know the truth. But the public in the rest of the world has eyes wide open and will not be shut again. That is why we are very optimistic that a new world order of diversity, pluralism, accountability is coming. Sad that it is being done with very heavy and unprecedented losses. Gaza lights the way with bodies of its people.
Action: Use these hashtags on your social media posts #Gaza #GazaPalestine #Palestine #CeaseFireNow #CeasefireForGaza #WestBank #EndIsraelGenocide #StandWithGaza #GlobalJustice #GazaGlobalAction #CeaseFireNow #GlobalIntifada #StandWithPalestine #EndIsraelsGenocide #FreePalestine #HumanRightsViolations #GazaGenocide
How Israel has destroyed Gaza’s schools and universities
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/24/how-israel-has-destroyed-gazas-schools-and-universities
[Good food for thought] Versions of Denial
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n02/conor-gearty/short-cuts
Not for the faint of heart (caution): watch this short video glimpse of Gaza strip
https://www.rete-ambientalista.it/2024/01/20/guardate-questo-video-prima-che-lo-cancellino/
https://opiniojuris.org/2024/01/09/at-worlds-end-palestine-the-icj-and-a-new-dawn-in-international-law/Why are Israeli soldiers sharing snuff videos from their genocide in Gaza? Decades of impunity, not only for the Israeli regime but also for Israeli individuals guilty of war crimes, has led us to this point. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/24/why-are-israeli-soldiers-sharing-snuff-videos-from-their-genocide-in-gaza
Jewish Voice for Peace: This Holocaust Remembrance Day, ‘never again’ is now
Inside Israel torture camp for Gaza detainees https://www.972mag.com/israel-torture-camp-gaza-detainees/
Have you noticed something about statements from Palestinians including leaders? https://www.facebook.com/reel/2386757741509516
By contrast see statements from Israelis at ongaza.org #7
Need to challenge Zionist infiltration and control of societies to use to defend genocide
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/ukpmhn-statement-the-moral-bankruptcy-of-psychoanalysis/
Incidentally Sigmund Freud wrote a letter nearly a hundred years ago rejecting putting his name in support of the Zionist project on psychological grounds:
“Whoever wants to influence the masses must give them something rousing and inflammatory and my sober judgment of Zionism does not permit this… It would have seemed more sensible to me to establish a Jewish homeland on a less historically-burdened land. But I know that such a rational viewpoint would never have gained the enthusiasm of the masses and the financial support of the wealthy. I concede with sorrow that the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of Arab distrust.”
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Mazin Qumsiyeh, associate professor of genetics and director of cytogenetic services at Yale University School of Medicine, is founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation and ex-president of the Middle East Genetics Association. He won the Raymond Jallow Activism Award from the national Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. He is co-founder and national treasurer of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and has written extensively about the Middle East. Qumsiyeh is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, author of Sharing the Land of Canaan and Popular Resistance in Palestine, a professor at Bethlehem University and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History in Bethlehem. http://palestinenature.org
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