Palestinians try to salvage what they can from the rubble of a house destroyed by an overnight Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Khalil Hamra / AP
Palestinians try to salvage what they can from the rubble of a house destroyed by an overnight Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Khalil Hamra / AP
Palestinians try to salvage what they can from the rubble of a house destroyed by an overnight Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Khalil Hamra / AP
Palestinians try to salvage what they can from the rubble of a house destroyed by an overnight Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Khalil Hamra / AP

Gaza: the choice of life in an open-air prison or being shot is no choice


  • English
  • Arabic

The Arab-British satirist Karl Sharro often makes pithy political observations on Twitter. One of his most recent ones was fairly simple – and undercut with a poignant truth: “Israel has given Palestinians a choice: accept the humiliation of life in an open-air prison or we shoot you. Go on, make that choice.”

Sharro has a point. A broader point is this: the "international community", whatever that phrase still means, allows for that choice to be made – and makes little or no effort to change it. On the contrary, the "choice" becomes more stark every day, as the recent killings in Gaza have shown.

Let us be clear: the deaths of Palestinian protesters in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military are hardly the only abhorrent occurrence that has taken place in the region over the past week. The actions of the Syrian regime in Yarmouk, for example, are especially detestable and they have received a paltry amount of attention, which is disgraceful. And certainly, it does not appear that the "international community" cares about that arena of suffering – a grotesque arena to be sure – very much at all.

What is striking, nevertheless, about the killings in Gaza is how much discussion there was in the western media on the Palestinian question – and how indescribably nauseating so much of that discussion was. Day after day, piece after piece, especially in the US press, we were bombarded by critiques, not of those shooting unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza but of those being shot.

The very genuine and real problem of a lack of Palestinian leadership and the appalling conduct of the Hamas organisation were taken as clubs with which to beat Palestinians en masse over the head. Such critiques forget that it is Palestinians themselves who already suffer from the lack of genuine leadership and it is Palestinians themselves who suffer from Hamas more than anyone else.

But most fundamental of all is the truth that such critiques generally miss the larger frame within which the conflict exists. That frame is rather simple: it is called the occupation of Palestinians for a reason, because Palestinians are occupied and under siege by the Israeli military. Not the other way round.

It’s important to be clear about that because the way the discussion was unfolding in the past few weeks, one could be mistaken for thinking Palestinians were occupying Israeli territory and laying siege to Israelis.

It's clear that is nonsense. Not a single Israeli died as a result of the events of last week but more than 60 Palestinians perished under Israeli fire. But this is the nature of so much of the discussion around the occupation. Simply being clear that this is not some kind of battle between more or less equal opponents but a violent occupation and siege of one party by an overwhelmingly powerful actor seems to be too controversial to declare outright in much of the policy establishment in the West today.

On the contrary: rather than ask the basic question of how we can continue to allow the continuous dehumanisation and repression of a people for so many decades, we revoltingly ask instead why Palestinians "killed themselves for public relations purposes".

Now, in much of the world, the predicament of the Palestinians remains one that occupies a lot of attention, and rightly so. But here is the honest truth: they are on their own. Against the backdrop of a veritable laundry list of crises in the world, the Palestinian question, alas, is hardly a top priority.

Indeed, they have been a subject of conversation more often in the past few weeks for one reason alone: the Trump administration made things worse following the disastrous declaration surrounding the moving of the American embassy to Jerusalem.

Had that announcement not been made, the situation of the Palestinians would have still been awful and repugnant – because the siege and the occupation would have remained – but we wouldn’t be talking about it. Because, again, the laundry list of crises in the region in particular, and the world more generally, has left the Palestinians too far behind.

Is it thus inevitable that this be the case indefinitely? Not at all, because these are all the repercussions of choices made by those Tel Aviv continues to rely on for commercial and military support.

But change requires them to see Palestinians as fully fledged human beings that deserve the chance to live in freedom and dignity. What Palestinians get instead is lip service and rhetoric – and unfortunately, they might even cease to get that, as their future becomes sacrificed on the altar of some geostrategic game with different adversaries.

If and when that happens, we all should then remind ourselves – we had a choice and we consciously made the wrong one. We should at least be honest about that.

Dr HA Hellyer is a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC and the Royal United Services Institute in London

The specs: 2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

Price, base: Dh1.2 million

Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Power: 725hp @ 6,500pm

Torque: 900Nm @ 1,800rpm

Fuel economy, combined:  12.3L / 100km (estimate)

Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World by Michael Ignatieff
Harvard University Press

Company profile

Name: Back to Games and Boardgame Space

Started: Back to Games (2015); Boardgame Space (Mark Azzam became co-founder in 2017)

Founder: Back to Games (Mr Azzam); Boardgame Space (Mr Azzam and Feras Al Bastaki)

Based: Dubai and Abu Dhabi 

Industry: Back to Games (retail); Boardgame Space (wholesale and distribution) 

Funding: Back to Games: self-funded by Mr Azzam with Dh1.3 million; Mr Azzam invested Dh250,000 in Boardgame Space  

Growth: Back to Games: from 300 products in 2015 to 7,000 in 2019; Boardgame Space: from 34 games in 2017 to 3,500 in 2019

Jetour T1 specs

Engine: 2-litre turbocharged

Power: 254hp

Torque: 390Nm

Price: From Dh126,000

Available: Now

GAC GS8 Specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo

Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh149,900

Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:

1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition

RESULTS

Catchweight 82kg
Piotr Kuberski (POL) beat Ahmed Saeb (IRQ) by decision.

Women’s bantamweight
Corinne Laframboise (CAN) beat Cornelia Holm (SWE) by unanimous decision.

Welterweight
Omar Hussein (PAL) beat Vitalii Stoian (UKR) by unanimous decision.

Welterweight
Josh Togo (LEB) beat Ali Dyusenov (UZB) by unanimous decision.

Flyweight
Isaac Pimentel (BRA) beat Delfin Nawen (PHI) TKO round-3.

Catchweight 80kg​​​​​​​
Seb Eubank (GBR) beat Emad Hanbali (SYR) KO round 1.

Lightweight
Mohammad Yahya (UAE) beat Ramadan Noaman (EGY) TKO round 2.

Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) beat Reydon Romero (PHI) submission 1.

Welterweight
Juho Valamaa (FIN) beat Ahmed Labban (LEB) by unanimous decision.

Featherweight
Elias Boudegzdame (ALG) beat Austin Arnett (USA) by unanimous decision.

Super heavyweight
Maciej Sosnowski (POL) beat Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) by submission round 1.

'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

Rating: 1 out of 4

Running time: 81 minutes

Director: David Blue Garcia

Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham