Early May 2021, we began to see a rise of conflicting media narratives around the world surrounding Israel and Palestine after the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarah was distraught with Israeli military physically removing the Palestinian families from their homes with no warning. But we’ve watched the conflicting narratives for long enough to no longer see the truth the mass media has once again failed to fully and honestly disclose to the public. This article elaborates three very basic points on the reality of the Israeli occupation in Palestine.
First, I offer an explanation of how Israel was established and how the Palestinians became refugees. Secondly, I address propaganda fueling the notion that the issue is a conflict rather than an Israeli occupation. Thirdly, I challenge the idea that the issue between Israel and Hamas is rooted in religion.
Before we dive in, the definitions of Israel and Palestine are to be dealt with. Apartheid Israel is defined as a colonizing power that is based on deep-rooted racism (Jerome, 2021). After reviewing the Israeli laws, statements by Israeli officials, land records and government planning documents, Human Rights Watch, which is an international non-governmental organization that investigates and documents violations of human rights, concluded in its 214 page-report that Israel is an Apartheid state (A Threshold Crossed, 2021). What is meant by apartheid here is the “inhumane acts… committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” (The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 17, 2011: 4). Palestine is known as the occupied Palestinian Territory (oPT), which is what is left for the indigenous Palestinians from historic Palestine; it has been occupied by Israel since 1967. The area includes East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (OHCHR | Occupied Palestinian Territory Homepage, 2021).
The Establishment of Israel and Palestinian Refugees
Israel was established after the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the Zionist movement forces and other Jewish troops (Milestones: 1945–1952 – Office of the Historian, 2021). The Jewish people who suffered from anti-Semitism during the Holocoust massively fled the harsh persecution to historic Palestine with the systematic support of the Zionist movement. The indigenous Palestinians rejected that as it made them feel insecure in their own country. Then came the UN’s partition plan in 1947, which was rejected by both sides, albeit Israel publicly signalled agreement. The partition plan aimed at giving the majority of the land for a new state called Israel. Over 400 Palestinian villages, cities and towns were erased by Israel. Israel controlled 78% of historic Palestine. Then, the Palestin people tried to return to their homes but were prevented by the Israeli government and became camp-refugees in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and other countries around the world. Today, the Palestinians are seeking to return to their homeland. In Israel, which is the country self-defined for the Jews only, the indigenous Palestinians who managed to stay despite the Israeli genocides in 1948 make up 20% of Israel’s population. They became second-class citizens suffering from institutional discrimination in their own home.
Since its establishment, Israel has never defined its borders in order to enable itself to take on more of Palestinian territory for maximum land and resources for its Jewish citizens. The Israeli occupation has been doing its best to hide this reality. One of the most blatant words said out of trying to prove these realities wrong was Tzipi Hotovely’s sentence during an event organized by the Board of Deputies of British Jews after she was assigned as the Israeli Ambassador to the UK in 2020. She described the Palestinian Nakba as “a very strong and very popular Arab lie” (Middle East Monitor, 2020). Well, numerous historical facts prove what Hotovely claims is completely wrong. Why have credited writers, such as Edward Said, Ilan Pappe, Rashid Khaldi and thousands of others, been writing about the Palestinian Nakba if Hotovely’s claim was right? Why could such giants lose their credibility and write about a lie?!
My grandparents were of those who had the luck to remain alive after the Palestinian Nakba. My grandfather comes from Hamama and my grandmother comes from Haifa, which are Palestinian village and city ethnically cleansed in 1948 for the sake of establishing the state of Israel. If Hotovely were right, where did my parents come from, and how am I registered as a refugee in the UN? Why is my accent (the half Hamami and half Haifawi accent) different from the people of Gaza and why did my grandfather die holding the key to his house in Hamama? Can Hotovely find a more logical way to talk about the Palestinians and try to defend the crimes of Israel? We need a narrative that is factual and common sense before anything else.
Occupation vs. Conflict
What has been taking place between the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian people is not a conflict. When a person describes an event as a conflict s/he needs to be talking about two equal parties, but the Israel and Palestine file is about an oppressed people and an oppressor. Israel has been misleading the international community saying that it is a conflict. In fact, the persistent ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the recent incidents in Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza has attracted massive international attention. If it were a conflict, Israel would not have been able to do all of that. But it manages to do it as it has the superior military strength in the Israel/Palestine situation. Many suggest that the Israel/Palestine file is hard to be classified as a conflict, occupation, etc. The complexity claim is nothing but a tool that serves the interests of the Israeli occupation throughout misleading the world. What has been happening since the very beginning of the establishment of Israel is very clear and can be logically followed to prove that it is not a conflict. Ilan Pappe, who is an Israeli historian stated:
“The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story—hard to understand and even harder to solve. Indeed, the story of Palestine has been told before: European settlers coming to a foreign land, settling there, and either committing genocide against or expelling the indigenous people. The Zionists have not invented anything new in this respect. But Israel succeeded nonetheless, with the help of its allies everywhere, in building a multilayered explanation that is so complex that only Israel can understand it. Any interference from the outside world is immediately castigated as naïve at best or anti-Semitic at worst.” (Myth: It’s just so incredibly complicated | Decolonize Palestine, 2021).
Hence, what has been taking place in between the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian people can be called: the Israel/Palestine file, persistent ethnic cleansing of Palestine, settler colonialism, military occupation, land theft or anything that exactly describes what has been taking place there in Palestine. But, it has never been a conflict. It is about time the misinformation about Palestine and the Israeli occupation was debunked. People around the world are not idiots to believe in whatever is given to them by the mass media. They have minds to think and eyes to see. The evidence is always there for those who seek the truth.
An Occupation Not Rooted in Religion
What has been taking place between the Israelis and the Palestinians has nothing to do with religion. Palestine had been inhabited by Muslim, Christian, and Jewish people before the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. They coexisted with one another and had a very harmonious life (PEPA, 2021). Israel claims that its occupation of Palestine is a Jewish/Muslim conflict between Israel and Hamas, and it succeeded in distorting the image of Hamas as a terrorist organization. This came as part of deforming the image of the Palestinian resistance in front of the international community. Reality is completely different. First, the Palestinian society is a multi-religion society as mentioned before. The Palestinian Muslims and Christians have no problem with having a Jewish neighbor living with them in the same area and peacefully sharing daily life with them. The problem that the Palestinians have has to do with the Zionist oppression imposed on them and with the institutional Israeli racism against the non-Jews. If their claim were correct, why would the Israeli soldiers continually attack the peaceful Christian and Muslim prayers in Jerusalem and hinder them from doing their rituals? Why does Israel continue assaulting places of worship across the holy city (Aljazera, 2021)? Why would the Jews in the UK and other countries protest against the most recent Israeli merciless carnage in Gaza? Logically speaking, if it were a Muslim/Jewish issue, the Christian Palestinians would not have been affected, and the Jews from different countries would not have been in support of the rights of the Palestinians. The inhumane crimes of the Israeli occupation have nothing to do with the Jews, including the Jewish rabbis, who are in support of equality and the dignity of the individual.
Regarding the rumor that suggests it is an Israel/Hamas conflict, the Israeli occupation targets civilians, including children, in Palestine, particularly Gaza, under the pretext of protecting the Israeli citizens from Hamas as often reported on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) news. Reality is completely different. If it were only about Hamas, why deliberately kill the Palestinian children? The first point to be raised here is that Hamas is part of the Palestinian society and one of the various political parties that work on resisting the Israeli occupation. The right to resist is a very basic human right that is guaranteed by the norms of international law. Whether Hamas is a perfect or corrupt government in Gaza is not the larger issue at hand. Israel has no right to intervene and use that for its own advantage. Another point to be raised here is that the Israeli occupation has been there for about 73 years, and Hamas emerged during the first Palestinian intifada in 1987. Let’s assume that it was really a Hamas/Israel conflict, what had the Israeli occupation been doing in Palestine before the creation of Hamas? The storytelling on the BBC and the ABC always starts with the reaction of the Palestinians, and it is limited to Hamas’s reaction to serve the Israeli propaganda. The Israeli occupation is an action, and the Palestinian resistance is a reaction that comes from the whole Palestinian society, not from a particular political party.
The Israeli military strength surpasses that of the Palestinians thousands of times. This means the two strengths cannot be compared. I am one of those who experienced life in Palestine. A few days ago, my brother’s house got completely demolished by the Israeli occupation with an American-made F16 rocket. My brother and the many other Palestinians whose houses were targeted during the most recent massacre in Gaza are normal civilians who do not even know how to hold a gun. Every Gazan and every Palestinian is an Israeli military target. Reviewing how the May 2021 Israeli military operations in Gaza, the West Bank, and Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem took place gives a crystal clear example of how the Israeli occupation deals with the indigenous Palestinians and how it is covered by the pro-Israel media.
Challenge the Media and Change the Narrative
To sum up, the state of Israel had not been there before the 1948 Nakba and it was established on ethnically cleansed Palestinian areas; this is what gave birth to having the Palestinians becoming either stateless refugees or second-class citizens in what is now called Israel. Israel occupies Palestine and deliberately targets the Palestinian civilians, particularly the children to create the ideology of defeatism in the mind of the Palestinians. Finally, the Palestinian people have no problem with Judaism as a religion, but their problem is with the racist movements like Zionism responsible for Palestianians losing their homes, lives, and children. The Palestinian people lost their homes, became refugees, and watched their loved ones die tragically after the confiscation of their lands and properties in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. This short article aims at calling upon its readers to relook and reevaluate how they have been programmed to view the Israel/Palestine file and strongly urges to not mistake pro-Palestinian support as an attack on Judaism or the Jewish people. Every single reader can make a difference and change history in Palestine by confronting the Israeli government with its real image, revealing it, and not supporting its crimes against the Palestinian people.
Share Your Voice
NIOT Daniel Island is grateful to Naema Aldaqsha for taking the time to share her knowledge, work, and family’s experience in Palestine. She lives in London, United Kingdom and is working on completing her M.A. in Political Science–International Relations at Richmond, The American International University in London. Access the organized list of sources included in this article and continue to research, learn, and share your informed insights on the Israeli occupation in Palestine with your community. Donating to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund is another way to support Palestinians in their fight for freedom. Learn other ways to support Palestine and share this blog post.
If you would like to write about this or any other topic focused on social justice, equality, and equity, please contact us to be a guest author.
NIOT Daniel Island 
Really well explained👍
LikeLiked by 1 person