From the River to the Sea

Or

Why #ISupportPalestine

The Gaza Strip

One of the most effecting films I've ever seen is the brutal, black and white and brilliantly heart rending Schindler's List - a harrowing account of Nazi atrocities during the Second World War Holocaust, and one brave man who did what he could to help.  One of the settings of the film is the Jewish ghetto of Krakow, in Poland.  Many attrocities and degredations are visited upon this ghetto, which are terrible to behold, and never has man's inhumanity to man been more powerfully depicted on the silver screen. If you're one of the many people who have seen this film yourself you'll know what I mean.

Thinking back to the way the people of Krakow suffered, trapped in that dismal place with nowhere to escape to, I have a question: what would you have thought if some of the Jews of Krakow had assembled, or gained access to, a rudimentary rocket launcher?  And had then had begun launching rockets in the general direction of the German controlled areas of Poland?

Perhaps you would think them stupid, because of the retribution they would suffer, and the possibility that they might kill some of their own with their primitive, directionless technology? Perhaps you would have thought their cause hopeless, surrounded as they were on all sides by a much greater force?

But would you think them evil? Would you consider them terrorists?

Now let's fast forward to the present - to the Palestinian ghetto of Gaza. It was Labour peer Lord John Prescott (I'm sure he'd agree that calling him by that title is a bit weird considering he's a very down to earth Northerner, but I digress) who censured Israel for acting as “judge, jury and executioner” in its quest to mute Hamas “terrorists,” turning Gaza into what he says is a “concentration camp.”

He also said that the Nazi Holocaust should have given the Jewish people of Israel “a unique sense of perspective and empathy with the victims of a ghetto”.

Is he right or wrong?

Like 85% of my countrymen, I've come to the conclusion that he is correct.

Because it is Israel that is now the occupying power, in Gaza and in the West Bank.  Because of its vastly superior weaponry, which should bring with it greater responsibility for seeking a peaceful solution, and the for huge difference in the respective number of casualties on both sides - over 1000 deaths (and climbing) on the Palestinian side compared to less than 60 on the Israeli side at the time of writing (though I realise even one death is one too many).

So there is my opinion. I have chosen a 'side'. I have chosen to support the people of Palestine.

Does this conclusion make me antisemitic?

It is Roger Waters, ex of Pink Floyd, who I believe answered this charge very well:

"I will say this: I have nothing against Jews or Israelis, and I am not antisemitic. I deplore the policies of the Israeli government in the occupied territories and Gaza. They are immoral, inhuman and illegal. I will continue my non-violent protests as long as the government of Israel continues with these policies."

I will go further than this and voice my disquiet over other developments that have reached me:

"... reports about gangs of Muslims chanting 'death to Jews' on the streets of France, and attacking synagogues and setting fire to Jewish-owned stores. Eighteen people were subsequently arrested in the suburb of Sarcelles, just outside Paris, where this particular outpouring of violence happened. The stunned local mayor says the Jewish community is now living in fear.
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Germany, too. In Essen, 14 people have just been arrested, accused of plotting an attack on a synagogue. Protesters at a rally in Berlin turned on two Israeli tourists (identifiable by the man’s skull-cap) so viciously that they had to be protected by the police. The city’s authorities have also had to ban pro-Gaza protesters from chanting anti-Semitic slogans and are investigating a sermon last week by Abu Bilal Ismail calling on worshippers at Berlin’s Al-Nur mosque to murder Jews. Jews, not Israelis."

I absolutely reject and abhor this kind of virulent hatred, just as I abhor the act of a suicide bomber boarding an Israeli school bus, or an Israeli tank or bomber targeting a Palestinian school or hospital, or an Israeli missile slaughtering Palestinian boys playing football on a beach.

Naama Abu al-Foul - a 2 year old Palestinian girl

Perhaps most distressing of all is the seemingly insurmountable barrier that seperates those on both sides of this. We are seperated by ideology, by race by religion and by history. Sometimes even the hint of sympathy for the 'other side' can provoke the most extreme reponses, and  I was recently told I needed an "exorcism to drive out whatever evil is possessing my soul"!

But I welcome the courage and the grace of the people like the Palestinian doctor, Izzeldin Abuelaish, who lost half of his family to this conflict, but chose to forgive when it would have been so easy not to.  If someone like him can let go of his anger, after what he and his family have been through, then there is always hope, even in the darkest times.  And right now, things are very dark indeed.

Almost exactly one hundred years ago, the First World War began. What followed was an unprecedented slaughter that lasted more than 4 years and left 37 million people dead. I sometimes wonder if we will ever learn anything.  But as I stated, in the darkest hour, they say, there is always hope.  Maybe.

A letter to UK Prime Minister @David_Cameron calling for sanctions to halt Israel's attacks on #Gaza - http://act.palestinecampaign.org/petition/camerongaza

Petition: Call on the British government to work towards a ceasefire in Gaza - https://campaign.actionaid.org.uk/page/speakout/Gaza?subsource=ACT1407GAZ&source=SSS

Petition: call on the UN Secretary General to do all he can to put a ceasefire in place. - See more at: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/stop-killing-children-gaza-israel?utm_campaign=gaza&utm_medium=fb&utm_source=gazapdfb#sthash.4TrKPf0X.dpuf