| Gaza 2008 - 2009 |
reference from
'Dynamics of Human Violence' |
|
| 360 km2,
population: 1.4 million (cf Westbank 2.4 million), currency: Egyptian pound |
|
|
| groups: Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) vs Hamas |
|
|
|
| background
parties: Israeli government, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Fatah,
Quartet (UN, US, EU, RU), Arab League, Egypt, Syria, Iran (weapons for Hamas) |
| Israel: western
democracy with big military power (incl nuclear weapons), population: 7.3
milion, |
|
|
| actors of
violence: armies, paramilitary groups and terror cells |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
before 2008 (historical) |
2008/2009 |
| biological |
|
racial/ethnical difference
Arabs (i.c. Palestinians) - Jews |
|
|
| demographical
development in the Israel / Palestine area
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
|
|
|
| psychological |
judgement
of Israels role influenced by anti-semitism and holocaust |
Entanglement of both parties
in hate-loops like: 'It's very hard to forgive them for forcing us to kill
them.' |
asymmetry in numbers of casualties, the
(media-)effects of killed civilians, the (media-)effects of difference in
numbers of casualties on both sides |
Palestinian physician
working in Israel, living in Gaza, whose daughters were killed by the IDF
while shooting the building where they lived in an appartment: 'My daughters
regularly visited peace-camps. Yes, they were armed - with love.' |
| social |
19th/20th century Russian
and European anti-semitism > ideal of a Jewish nation-state |
Israel as belonging to the
sphere of Western democracies, contrary to the surrounding countries and the
Palestinians, ethnical, national and cultural differences |
segregation of Gaza
population, scapegoating the entire population for the behavior of
Palestinian extremists and terrorists |
|
| linguistical |
Hamas' manifest (1988):
wicked enemy with Nazi behavior (..) Nazism of the Jews (..) Nazi Zionist
measures (..) ferocious Mongol, Nazi onslaught (..) armies of the Crusaders
(..) strive against the Zionist enemy and against its lackeys. |
februari 2008 - The
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of "international
terrorism," saying its assault on Gaza constitutes "more than a
holocaust." - Saudi Arabia meanwhile compared the IDF offensive to
"Nazi war crimes" |
accusations of fascism and
terrorism |
|
| juridical |
Hussein-McMahon
Correspondence (1915) conflicting with the Balfour Declaration (1917):
Palestine 'should be the national home of the Jewish people, but that nothing
should be done - and this, of course, was a most important proviso - to
prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine. 1919 The British placed Palestine, promised to the
Zionist Federation in 1917, under mandate with a civilian administration
headed by Herbert Samuel, and divided their remaining territory in the Middle
East into the kingdoms of Iraq and Transjordan, assigning them to Faisal and
his brother Abdullah, respectively. 1922 Curchill's wihte papers: The whole
of Palestine west of the Jordan was excluded from Sir. Henry McMahon's pledge.
Immigration of Jews should be allowed, but 'It is essential to ensure that
the immigrants should not be a burden upon the people of Palestine as a
whole, and that they should not deprive any section of the present population
of their employment.' |
Gaza strip earlier British Mandate,captured by Egypt in
1940s. In 1947, the U.N. approved the partition of the British Mandate of
Palestine into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership
accepted the plan, but Palestinian Arab leaders, rejected it. 1948 UN
Resolution 194 (Right to Return for Palestines). 1967 captured by Israel.
Immediately after the war, on June 19, 1967, the Israeli government offered
to return the Golan Heights to Syria, the Sinai to Egypt and most of the West
Bank to Jordan in exchange for peace. At the Khartoum Summit in September,
the Arab parties responded to this overture by declaring "no peace with
Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with Israel."
1967ff illegal settlements in Gaza and in the Westbank, UN Resolution 242 and
2004 International Court (demanding withdrawel of Israel from the occupied
territories and calling for the mutual recognition by the belligerent parties
(Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan) of each other's established states and calls
for the establishment of secure and recognized boundaries for all parties.),
1980 UN Resolution 478 (rejecting annexation East-Jerusalem by Israel) |
|
|
| political |
Zionist and Arab
nationalism, 1978 Camp David Accords, 1993 Oslo Peace Process (two-state
solution), 2000 Clinton blamed Arafat for the failure of the Camp David
Summit, 2002 Quartet Roadmap for Peace, 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, 2003
Sharon's disengagementplan from Gaza, 2004 Arafat (failing peace-maker and
failing state-builder) dies, 2005 Gaza disengagement implemented, |
Hamas wins the general
elections in 2006, but is not allowed to participate in negatiotons about the
Israel-Palestine core issues (issues which need to be resolved: Jerusalem,
refugees, settlements, security, borders and water), because Hamas is
regarded as terrorist organisation. The US cited three conditions that the
Palestinian government would need to satisfy for a resumption of aid: an end
to violence, recognition of Israel, and adherence to the Road Map for Peace. |
In Gaza lack of governmental
control of outgoing violence (rocket-launching), Haaretz (2008): the only way
to ensure the safety of the people living near the Gaza border is through a
political effort to reach a cease-fire agreement. |
demands Israel: safety for
Israel, stop shooting rockets, Egypt (or another party): prevent weapons from
being imported into Gaza / demands Hamas: open the borders to Egypt and
Israel, stop Israel's controling Gaza air, sea and borders, recognize Hamas' jurisdiction
(Hamas still not recognizing Israel - see their Manifest 1988: The hour of
judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them
-Palestine is Islamic Waqf land given to all generations of Muslims until the
Day of Resurrection. Conferences are nothing but a way to give the infidels
power of arbitration over Muslim land, and when have the infidels ever been
equitable towards the believers?). |
| military |
1948 Arab-Israeli War, 1964 PLO founded, 1967 Six-Day War (capturing of
Westbank from Jordan, Gaza strip from Egypt and Golan Hights from Syria),
1973 Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon War, 1987 First Intifada (1,551
Palestinians and 422 Israelis killed), 1987 Hamas founded (Hamas openly
states that it does not recognize Israel's right to exist), 2000 Second
Intifada, |
In 2006the year following Israel's disengagement from the Gaza
Stripthe Israeli government recorded 1,726 such launches, more than four
times the total rockets fired in 2005. Israel stated that its 2007 Gaza
military operations were in response to Hamas's frequent rocket attacks from
Gaza into Sderot, and on other Israeli cities. According to Human Rights
Watch, these deliberate attacks against civilians violate international
humanitarian law. 2007 Hamas -Fatah battles in Gaza, lost by Fatah, but the Palestinian
National Authority (PNA) still claims the autority in both the Westbank and
Gaza |
After
years of Qassam rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilian areas, in
December 2008, the Israeli Defense Forces responded with Operation Cast Lead,
aimed at Hamas militants, strongholds, rocket launch sites and ammunition
depots throughout Gaza, killing almost 1300 Palestinians, the vast majority
of whom Palestinian civilians. |
the IDF reports that
collateral damage is unavoidable as Hamas militants use densely populated
areas, hospitals and mosques as ammunition depots and launching pads. As of
January 19 2009, the UN estimates 60% of the 1284 Palestinians killed by
Israel were civilians. The damage is estimated > 1.5 biljon. The Operation
ends on January 19th, the day before the inauguration of Barak Obama as the
44th president of the US. |
| violent
events (different from military operations) |
1987-1993 First Intifada,
Palestinian stones against Israelian bullets 1991 Sadam Hoessein (Irak)
launches Scud rockets on Israel |
1995 Rabin murdered by a
Jewesh extremist (representing those who see the Oslo Peace Accord, which
gave the Palestinians selfcontrol, as treason). 2000ff Second Intifada |
Hamas ended the tahdia (kind
of cease-fire time-out, starting under Egyptian pressure on 18.6.2008 and
respected by Israel, ended by Hamas on 19.12.2008) |
Jerusalem
Post: Hamas executes 35 prisoners, accusing them of collaboration with
Israel, and mutiliates 75 Fatah members in order to prevent another
Fatah-coup |
| economical |
poverty and economic
problems of the refugees, also due to the refusal to grant citizenship to
Palestinian Arabs in other Arab nations (NB cf none of the 900,000 Jewish
refugees who fled anti-Semitic violence in the Arab world were ever
compensated or repatriated by their former countries of residence) |
1993ff Gaza blockade by
Israel, controling air, see and land-borders (according to Oslo Accords
between Israel & PLO). About 70% of Gaza's workforce has become
unemployed or without pay, and about 80% of its residents live in grinding
poverty. According to Human Rights Watch, this violated the international
humanitarian law prohibition against collective punishment against the
civilian population of Gaza. |
The Israeli Government's cut
in the flow of fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip has also been called
collective punishment of the civilian population, which would be a violation
of Israels obligations under the laws of war. Starting February 7, 2008, the
Israeli Government reduced the electricity it sells directly to Gaza. |
|
| religious |
Disputes about locations
that are important for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Many Muslims view the
land of Palestine as an Islamic Waqf (trust) for future Muslim generations. A
parallel exists in the aspirations of some Zionists and Jewish religious leaders
to establish Jewish sovereignty over all of Greater Israel in trust for the
Jewish people. |
in both parties one can find
radical religious nationalists, who don't accept any compromise, and would
prefer apocalyptic martyrdom above life |
|
|
| philosophical |
Israelian/Palestinian area as the mythical 'center
of the world', cf the cloverleaf worldmap (1581), cf also Hamas' Manifest
(1988): Palestine is the center of the Earth and the meeting place of the
continents |
ideology
of the 'Ummah' (community of Muslims), which was and still is broken by the
existence of a nation of Jews in an area which was once under the control of
the Islamic Caliphate |
Hamas' manifest (1988): The
Islamic Resistance Movement welcomes every Muslim who embraces its creed,
adopts its ideology (..) the Palestinian issue is a religious issue (..) the
PLO has adopted the idea of the secular state, and we [Hamas] view [the PLO]
accordingly. Secularist ideology stands in total contradiction to the
religious ideology. (..) Israel with its Jewish identity and Jewish people is
challenging Islam and the Muslims. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
