What an amazing thing is the human spirit. What an amazing thing is human dignity. We, the Palestinians, despite everything this cruel world has dished out to us for over a century, could give the whole world a master-class on how to survive with dignity.
This spirit of my people, under a crushing occupation back home in Palestine, is the tonic I sip every morning to give me the energy I must have to continue to show readers a modicum of what my people endure.
Since last Saturday, the fascist, wanted war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, has introduced yet another form of psychological torture to quell that spirit. The whole world is talking about the ceasefire agreement and the scheduled release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Just concentrate, for a minute, on the use of language. Israelis are hostages and the Palestinians are prisoners, implying that the Israelis are innocent bystanders and that the Palestinians are guilty of some crime. I suppose the Palestinians, by simply, being Palestinians on their land is a big crime. Donald Trump, ill-informed and devoid of any human compassion and understanding, has said that the condition of these released Israeli hostages was appalling and reminded him of the survivors of the Holocaust. There is that word again — Holocaust — being used as a ramming rod to silence any criticism of the fascist state of Israel. I wonder, did any of Trump’s team of advisers show him just one picture of a skeletal, emaciated, released Palestinian prisoner and if so, how would he describe him? Did any of those so-called advisers bring to the notice of the new emperor of the Western World, the stories, verified and confirmed, of torture, rape and appalling mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners right up to the point of their release? Or are they not even worthy of a mention?
As per the ceasefire agreement between the Israeli occupying power and Hamas on 22 February, Hamas had agreed to release six hostages and Israel was supposed to release 620 Palestinian detainees. Hamas kept to their agreement. Netanyahu delayed, indefinitely, the release of the Palestinians, citing amongst other flimsy excuses, the release ceremonies on camera in Gaza. Apparently the sight of well-fed, healthy and cared for Israeli hostages being released made Netanyahu feel “humiliated”.
Do you imagine that Netanyahu had any thoughts for the thousands of family members, who have been waiting for days, in the rain and the cold, with no shelter and no protection, to welcome home their loved ones? I somehow doubt it. Instead, he dished out more humiliation and psychological warfare, by ordering them not to celebrate the release of their loved ones. On top of that, his Minister of Energy, Eli Cohen, member of the Security Cabinet, who advocated on many occasions the total occupation of the West Bank, outlined their conditions for advancing to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement:
- Release of all Israeli prisoners.
- Removal of Hamas and Islamic Jihad from Gaza
- The disarmament of the Gaza Strip
- Israel must keep over all security control of Gaza.
Same old, same old.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, told CNN, “We have to get an extension of Phase 1”, adding, “I’ll be going into the region next week, probably Wednesday, to negotiate that.”
We can’t help wondering what is the fate of the original agreement that Witkoff and his boss offered the world with accompanying bells and whistles, just over a month ago?
The fascist occupiers of our land never needed any excuse to raid, kill, kidnap or destroy. They do all of this as a matter of policy. Ethnic cleansing, theft of land and natural resources and forcible removal of the indigenous population are enshrined in Zionist laws. The recent manifestation of this is the introduction of Israeli army tanks and bulldozers in the occupied West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas and Nablus. The tanks went in and the declared intent is very clear. “Our forces will stay for the whole year and beyond, if necessary,” said Netanyahu. His defence minister, Israel Katz, said of the 40,000+plus people who have been forcibly removed from their homes in the West Bank, that they will not be allowed to return.
Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu’s finance minister, also in charge of the settlements, openly calls for the occupation of the entire land mass of the West Bank.
And what does the civilised world do? It declares, in unison, its iron-clad support for Israel and that Israel has a right to defend itself.
It is truly an upside-down world.
Jafar M Ramini is a Palestinian writer and political analyst. He was born in Jenin in 1943 and was five years old when he and his family had to flee the terror of the Haganah Militia. He lived in London for 53 years before coming to Perth four years ago. Justice for the people of Palestine is a life-long commitment.