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- cross-posted to:
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In early December, images circulated worldwide showing dozens of Palestinian men in the city of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, who were stripped to their underwear, kneeling or sitting hunched over, then blindfolded and put into the back of Israeli military trucks like cattle. The vast majority of these detainees were civilians with no affiliation to Hamas, Israeli security officials later confirmed, and the men were taken away by the army without notifying their families of the detainees’ whereabouts. Some of them never returned.
+972 Magazine and Local Call spoke with four Palestinian civilians who appeared in these photos, or were arrested near the scene and taken to Israeli military detention centers, where they were held for several days or even weeks before being released back to Gaza. Their testimonies — along with 49 video testimonies published by various Arabic media outlets of Palestinians arrested in similar circumstances in recent weeks in the northern districts of Zeitoun, Jabalia, and Shuja’iya — indicate systematic abuse and torture by Israeli soldiers against all of the detainees, civilians and combatants alike.
According to these testimonies, Israeli soldiers subjected Palestinian detainees to electric shocks, burned their skin with lighters, spat in their mouths, and deprived them of sleep, food, and access to bathrooms until they defecated on themselves. Many were tied to a fence for hours, handcuffed, and blindfolded for most of the day. Some testified to having been beaten all over their bodies and having cigarettes extinguished on their necks or backs. Several people are known to have died as a result of being held in these conditions.
The settlers (aka colonolialist thieves and murderers) are literally killing, maiming, torturing Palestinians on their own land in the West Bank. Driving them out of their own houses, lands and farms. The Israeli army stands by and watches this. If any Palestinian tries to fight back against the settlers in the process of stealing their land they are maimed and/or murdered. And this is only in the West Bank where land theft and murder by the Israelis is still happening to this day. It doesn’t include any of the other clear land theft that had taken place in historic Palestine by the Israelis.
Now tell me that is not similar to the Apartheid police force breaking into houses in your area and telling you to move or be murdered, because your property now belongs the Apartheid state that is going to parcel it out to the white Apartheid supporting citizens.
Finding similarities between the atrocities commited by the Apartheid South African government and the Apartheid Israeli government is not adding my country’s baggage to a complex reality. A lot can be learnt by looking back at similar atrocities commited in the past and the repercussions of that, whay was learnt, etc.
Also an important point is that because of experiencing a similar repression of my people, parents, grandparents, and living through the tail end of that repression, i have empathy and some understanding of what the Palestinians are going through. I can’t claim to know exactly how they’re feeling but i do have some idea.
I have been campaigning in South Africa for Palestinian rights and self determination since i was a young teenager with my peers and my parents. I have been aware of the history, geopolitics and reality of the situation of the Palestinians since then. I have a pretty decent understanding of what is going on over there.
I misinterpreted your original post, but re-reading it now I agree. I was reacting to the common idea in this thread that Israel doesn’t have any right to exist – which is complicated, as all post-colonial history is. That wasn’t what you were commenting on, though. Israel is definitely encroaching on Palestinian land and rights in Gaza and the West Bank, and are at least half of the force against real peaceful solutions. I fully agree that what’s going on now should be classified a genocide, and as far as I know South Africa is the only country that has stated it.
It’s amazing the damage wrought in the wake of colonialism. Both Palestine/Israel and South Africa have suffered tremendously from colonizers deciding they knew what (and who) was best.
It’s no problem. Maybe i can also be more clear too in the future when replying.
It’s true that the Israeli citizens and the Palestinian citizens will have to be involved in a common solution. It will be very bitter, especially for the Palestinians, but one has to move forward