[ While it’s necessary, condemning attacks on civilians isn’t
enough. If we are serious about ending this spiraling violence, we
need to look at root causes. And that means – hard as it may be for
some to acknowledge it – we must look at the context.]
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AS ISRAEL AND GAZA ERUPT, THE US MUST COMMIT TO ENDING THE VIOLENCE
— ALL THE VIOLENCE  
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Phyllis Bennis
October 8, 2023
The Hill
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_ While it’s necessary, condemning attacks on civilians isn’t
enough. If we are serious about ending this spiraling violence, we
need to look at root causes. And that means – hard as it may be for
some to acknowledge it – we must look at the context. _

Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate by a destroyed
Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis southern
Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023., (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)

 

The most recent eruption of violence in Gaza and Israel is a tragic
reminder of the human consequences of decades of oppression. The human
toll – hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis killed so far – tells
that appalling story. Many of the targets, and many of those killed,
on both sides, were civilians.

And, as the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in
the occupied Palestinian territory noted about attacks on civilians,
“whoever launches them (Palestinian armed groups or Israeli
occupation forces) commits crimes that must be accounted for.” 

But while it’s necessary, condemning attacks on civilians isn’t
enough. If we are serious about ending this spiraling violence, we
need to look at root causes. And that means – hard as it may be for
some to acknowledge it – we must look at the context.

While this attack against Israel may have been a surprise to
Israel’s political and military officials, it should not have been
unexpected. Eruptions of violence have well-known causes; they are no
secret. Human rights organizations (Israeli, Palestinian, American and
international) and UN officials, parliamentarians and governments
around the world have long warned that Israel’s longstanding denial
of freedom and equality for Palestinians would continue sparking
cycles of violence.

Our understanding of reality is shaped by when we start the clock.

Saturday’s attack from Gaza did not happen out of thin air. It took
place in the context of decades of Israel’s domination and control
over Palestinians. As the Israeli human rights
organization B’tselem describes it
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“in the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan
River, the Israeli regime implements laws, practices and state
violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group – Jews –
over another – Palestinians. … [I]n 2007, Israel imposed a
blockade on the Gaza Strip that is still in place. Throughout all of
these years, Israel has continued to control nearly every aspect of
life in Gaza from outside.”

Generations of Palestinians, 80 percent of them refugees, have grown
up in the teeming, impoverished Gaza Strip, one of the most crowded
pieces of land on Earth. Since Israel besieged Gaza in 2007, most of
them have never been allowed to leave the walled-in, military-guarded
Strip, have never glimpsed the West Bank or Jerusalem, let alone 1948
Israel, and certainly not the wider world.

In 2012 the UN determined that without “herculean action” by the
international community, by 2020 Gaza “will not be livable” 
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though not only, because of the profound lack of access to clean
water. In 2015 the UN again reported that conditions had worsened,
particularly because of the Israeli military assault in 2014 and its
destruction of water and electrical infrastructure. And once again
they urgently warned that Gaza would be “unlivable”
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2020.

Yet more than 2 million Palestinians remain in Gaza, locked into an
open-air prison. 2020 has come and gone. The international community
did not take “herculean action” to stop Israel’s blockade or to
stop the current extremist government’s annexation of Palestinian
land. They did nothing (then-President Trump even praised it) when
Israel passed a law stating that “the right to exercise national
self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish
people
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— so even Palestinians who are Israeli citizens are officially
denied equal rights. And Gaza remains unlivable.

In 2018, a series of overwhelmingly non-violent marches, organized
by _Ahmed Abu Artema, _a young Gaza poet, and taking place inside
the besieged Strip, called for an end to the blockade and freedom of
movement for the Gaza population. They were met with tear gas, rubber
bullets and Israeli sharpshooters taking aim
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the mostly young protesters.

After two years, the result was 214 Palestinians killed, including 46
children, and more than 36,000 injured, including 8,800 children. More
than 8,000 of those injured were hit by live ammunition. By the time
the protests waned, in 2019, the United Nations reported
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1,700 of the protesters faced amputation of legs or arms because Gaza
hospitals had insufficient health care funding to provide advanced
care for those shot by Israeli snipers.

None of this makes attacks on civilians legal or acceptable. But
without addressing the root causes, violence will continue to erupt.
Israel remains the occupying power. Before today, Israeli soldiers had
already killed more than 214 Palestinians
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children
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in the occupied West Bank, and settler violence had escalated
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with nearly 600 attacks in just the first six months of this year. 

Too many Palestinians and too many Israelis have been killed. If
Israel was in fact surprised by the attack, it was an intelligence
failure – something that won’t be solved by sending it more
weapons. The United States provides $3.8 billion
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20 percent of Israel’s military budget –  every year, and that
clearly isn’t helping deal with the root causes of violence.

Right now, we need U.S. support for the UN as it calls for an
immediate ceasefire. And then we need a serious U.S. commitment to
ending the violence — all the violence. That means ending
Washington’s enabling of Israeli violations, and instead demanding
real accountability for violations of human rights and international
law, real moves to end the occupation and apartheid system and real
moves to demand equality for all living under Israeli control.

_Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and
serves as the international adviser for Jewish Voice for Peace. Her
books include “Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A
Primer.”_

* Israel
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* Gaza
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* Violence
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* roots
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