Israel Wipes a Palestinian Farming Community off the Face of the Map
(In Self-Defense, Of Course)
By Genevieve Cora Fraser
The news from Rafah Today ( http://rafahtoday.org) an on-line photo and essay journal is bleak. As Haaretz.com polls the world Jewry community on whether or not the
bonds to Israel are breaking, Beit Hanoun City in the Gaza Strip has been virtually wiped out by the country to which
world Jewry holds allegiance. As part of the Haaretz survey, a resident of Acre, Israel penned the line, "So long as
Israel claims to represent all Jews, it will make them all complicit in its colonial crimes and violations of
international law." About the time he was writing his comment, Israeli troops conducted a whirlwind campaign in Beit
Hanoun, destroying everything in sight. For 37 straight days the community was ground to a pulp as Israeli troops
stormed other locations throughout the Gaza Strip. But Beit Hanoun was without electricity or telecommunications, so not
much was known about its fate until recently.
Apparently the Israeli government, which some describe as a military with a state, believes that a show of strength is
what matters to the Israeli constituency both in Israeli and abroad, the modern so-called Israeli Diaspora with its
predominance of Ashkenazi Non-Semite Jews (not to be confused with the Semitic Palestinian Jews of 2,000 years ago, many
of whom became members of Graeco-Roman and Asian communities, or converted to Christianity or to Islam). The hallmark of
strength according to Israeli Zionist standards is complete brutality where no mercy is shown, or so it seems if they
are to be judged by their deeds instead of their words. It is reported that Ariel Sharon must show who is boss as he
dangles the prospect of disengagement in front of Gaza residents. And the settlers must be placated! So together with
daily shelling and shooting, all Beit Hanoun City has been razed to the ground - cars, buildings, trees, streets. All
have been demolished and the infrastructure damaged almost beyond repair.
I wonder if the resident of Vancouver, Canada would approve of the Israeli Occupation Force's actions. She commented to
Haaretz, "Israel is at war and its survival is at stake.. There are many reasons for the Jews from the Diaspora to
unconditionally support Israel in any way possible." Would she lend her support to wiping out an entire city as an
adherent of anything goes as long as it can be justified for the greater good of Israel? Isn't that how Hitler reasoned
in his "defense" of Germany? Why is it that Israel is allowed to be armed to the teeth with billions of American
taxpayer dollars each year as it wages an all-out illegal war on the Occupied Territories? The only defense Palestine
manages is sticks and stones, home-made devices or confiscated rifles. Armed resistance to invasion is legal under
international law. Most of the world recognizes this and is alarmed and presses for UN resolution after resolution
condemning Israel's actions. But all too many members of the American Israeli Diaspora demand from Congress nothing less
than an Imbalance of Power a.k.a. maintaining Israel's ability to strafe and bomb a defenseless population to kingdom
come as it secures greater and greater amounts of Palestinian territory, all the while complaining it has no partner in
peace.
Beit Hanoun City contains the Gaza Strip's most fertile land. Is that why it had to be wiped out? Is it being "cleansed"
of the Arab Semite population for future Non-Semite Jewish Settler activity as a pretense is made to disengage? The
World Bank has made overtures to invest in areas that would strengthen the Palestinian economy which has been devastated
by the Israeli Occupation and its catastrophic military incursions, racist Apartheid Wall, checkpoints, road blocks, and
destruction of agricultural lands, livestock and crops. Financial interests have begun to look closely at the Gaza
Strip, particularly areas rich in produce and other crops such as the strawberry, citrus and flowers for which Beit
Hanoun is famous. Perhaps the World Bank will have to look elsewhere now that the city has been leveled.
Rafah Today reported the governor of Beit Hanoun Dr. Abdelrahamn Hamad as saying, "Demolishing Beit Hanoun is a
catastrophe, and the Israeli occupation insisted on demolishing the only remaining source that brings vegetables to Gaza
Strip's markets." Beit Hanoun's demolished agricultural plots need at least 10 years to replant, the governor of the
demolished city further explained.
A complete tally of the dead and wounded has yet to be made; many are still buried beneath the rubble. Others were shot
to death by settlers for refusing to leave their homes. The survivors of Beit Hanoun City will no longer be
self-reliant, but now must depend on hand-outs from the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, an organization whose
food warehouses and personnel Israel has shot at and bombed on occasion. Some United Nations workers have been killed.
But most often Israel simply denies Palestinians access to UNRWA's food and water, medical supplies and shelter through
the network of roadblocks and checkpoints set-up within the territories. Eventually UNRWA gains access, but not without
starvation, hunger, disease and death taking its toll. You might think Israel wanted the Palestinians to dry up and blow
away! But why would they want that?
ENDS