A question that is being asked of the pro-Palestine movement over the last few days is, now that a ceasefire has been declared, why do we still protest for Palestine? Isn’t our job done? Can’t we now find something else to do with our time?
I’m going to try and answer that question, but in this post, there’s a specific answer I’m interested in giving. I’m not going to get into the fact that I believe that Israel will look for any excuse to break the ceasefire. What I’m interested in discussing in this post is, why, even if I had a crystal ball and could see that the ceasefire would definitely hold, I would still protest for Palestine. Why, if the mass slaughter that has been visited on Gaza since October 7th 2023, was now over, and the people there will now be treated the same way they were before October 7th 2023, I would still want to go to protest rallies, to write about Palestine on this blog, and to boycott Israeli products.
So, let’s take that as a given. That the guns have fallen silent. The genocide is over.* Israel is not violating the terms of the ceasefire in any way, and never will. Trump has brought peace to Gaza, forever! So why continue to protest?
Well, my initial reaction to the fact that Israel has agreed to stop the mass slaughter of the people of Gaza is, so? That’s right, SO? Why is this even relevant? I’m not saying it isn’t wonderful if it is indeed the case that the people of Gaza are now safe from bombings, shootings, and starvation, of course everyone with even a sliver of a conscience should be overjoyed if that is the case. My question is, why should any of this change how we view Israel one iota?
Last year, an absolute scumbag called Cathal Crotty viciously assaulted a woman named Natasha O’Brien. Crotty fled the scene when a male passerby intervened. I’ve written about this here:
Both in Ireland, and abroad, people were quite rightly outraged and appalled by the leniency of Crotty’s sentence, and there was wide-scale protest.
But why were people protesting? Crotty had at this point, ended his horrific attack on Natasha O’ Brien. If Crotty had ceased his violent act, why was there any need to protest?
I hope you think that last paragraph is the most stupid thing you’ve ever read.
The fact that Crotty (and you can apply the same logic to any case where a violent scumbag gets treated leniently) had by this point stopped his violent attack on Natasha O’ Brien is irrelevant. The point is, he had gotten nothing but a slap on the wrist for a completely unacceptable crime. Basic justice demanded that he pay for what he did. Hence, massive protests.
The exact same logic applies to Israel. If it is indeed the case that Israel is no longer in the business of committing genocide in Gaza, then, the idea that “Well they stopped, that’s the end of that” shows the utter sickening contempt that many people have for the people of Palestine. What needs to happen next is for Nehenyahu, Smotrich, Israel Katz, Yoav Gallant and too many Israelis for me to name to be brought to the Hague and put on trial for genocide. If they have stopped committing genocide, that couldn’t be more irrelevant. Should Ted Bundy have been allowed to remain free if he just one day made the decision to stop committing murders? There are cases like that you know. Like this man, who at the age of 92, was quite rightly, put in prison for a rape and a murder he committed in 1967:
I don’t hear anyone arguing that he should be allowed to remain free even though his vicious crime took place 58 years ago. And I’m expected to believe that Nehenyahu and his cronies should not only be allowed to remain free, but continue to be in political office when their crimes only ended last week?
I mean, to take the example of the worst genocide of the 20th century, people are quite rightly outraged that so many Nazis evaded capture and never had to face even a day of prison time for being responsible for the Holocaust. But why should people be upset if at that point the Holocaust had been brought to an end? I hope you believe that last sentence is the most moronic and infantile thing you have ever read.
It shows the absolutely despicable racism against the people of Gaza, if people are happy for those who committed one of the worst genocides of the 21st century to not be thrown in prison for the remainder of their natural lives. (Personally I’m against the death penalty, but I totally understand if anyone believes Nehenyahu deserves death.) It shows a belief that what was inflicted on Gaza wasn’t all that bad. The horrific murder of Hind Rajab? Anyone who thinks there’s no more to be done now that a “ceasefire” has been declared obviously thinks her murder isn’t all that bad. Same for Shaban al-Dalou, burned to death, along with his mother, in a Gaza hospital. Anyone who thinks there’s nothing more to be said now that a “ceasefire” has been declared, isn’t too concerned about the horror inflicted on a mother and son just over a year ago. And anyone who says that it’s time to move on from caring about Gaza, now that a “ceasefire” has been declared, obviously feels no compassion for Ahed Bseiso, who had to have what was left of her leg amputated without anesthesia or indeed any medical supplies after an Israeli attack.
If you don’t believe that for these atrocities, and more, that Nehenyahu, Smotrich, and many other Israelis shouldn’t be in the Hague right now, then you obviously don’t value Palestinian life all that much.
We Should All Have Been Protesting For Palestine Before October 7th.
I wrote here about how before 2023, I was one of the many people who was able to just sort of, put Palestine out of my mind:
Since October 7th 2023, Gaza has been in the news a lot more often (even if it’s often Western media just making excuses for Israel’s crimes.) While things got worse since that day, with Israel confident that it would be able to use the excuse of the October 7th attacks as a blank check to do whatever it wanted, it would be beyond ridiculous to say that the people of Palestine had even the most basic civil liberties before then.
After all, Israel is a European creation, essentially placed on top of Palestine. The creation of Israel should be regarded as no different from the creation of the United States, done with zero regard for the Native Americans already living there, or the creation of New Zealand, done with no regard for the Māori who were already living there.
There should have been massive protest against Israel, not since 2023, but since 1948.
You may remember reading about the murder of Rachel Corrie. This is one of the most well known cases where an American defending the people of Palestine was murdered, it happened in 2003:
Just think, this senseless murder was what Israel were willing to do to an American, which means they must surely have been doing worse to Palestinians. Her crime? Trying to save the houses owned by people living in Gaza. She stood in the way of a bulldozer that was in the process of destroying the houses, and the bulldozer, simply drove over her.
A cruel, senseless murder, committed roughly 20 years before the genocide in Gaza began.
So, you think silencing journalists in Gaza by murdering them, is something that didn’t start happening until 2023? I’m afraid not.
Also in 2003, James Miller, cameraman and film director, was shot dead by the IOF:
It’s starting to look like the genocide in Gaza, beginning 2023, happened not simply because Israel was able to use October 7th as an excuse, but also because of the sheer volume of human rights abuses and murders they were able to get away with before October 7th.
So, how did Israel view Palestinians before October 7th? As animals? No, not all. If they viewed them as animals, it would be an actual improvement. They viewed Palestinian citizens to be as disposable as blades of grass:
https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-most-tragic-long-running-farce-the-gaza-conflict-30301
“Mowing the lawn” has been a phrase used by Israelis since long before 2023. It is a metaphor for making sure those evil Palestinians don’t get too out of control. How do you do that? By, every now and then, committing mass murder against them.
While the fatalities suffered by Israel during October 7th undoubtedly gave them a pretext for committing genocide in Gaza, I don’t think it’s for that reason, and that reason alone, that they were able to do it. It is because, for years earlier, they were able to get away with doing pretty much whatever they wanted to the people of Gaza. Why wouldn’t a state that was getting away with “mowing the lawn” not decide to go one step further and exterminate an entire people?
The people of Gaza and the West Bank have been dehumanized, imprisoned, and murdered, both before and after October 7th. And everyone, myself included, should have been protesting for the rights and lives of Palestinians for the last few decades. So, if this “ceasefire” means that the treatment of Palestinians will go back to the way it was before October 7th, then we need to protest against that. We need to accept nothing less than a free Palestine. Our fellow human beings have been dehumanized since 1948, and it needs to end now.
Tony Fucking Blair, Is This A Joke?
I’m serious, is this a joke? Surely this must be a bit of black humour. Tony Blair? Tony Fucking Blair?
No, it’s not a joke. The equivalent of putting Ted Bundy (hey that’s the second time he got a mention!) in charge of a domestic violence shelter, is happening. Or as Owen Jones put it, the equivalent of putting Harold Shipman in charge of a care home, is happening:
This is beyond disgusting. After everything the Palestinians suffered, the proposal is for their leader to be, a man whose modus operandi is destroying the Middle East. Why is letting the Palestinians vote for their own leaders off the table? Because they might vote for Hamas or a similar organization? Well, Americans are allowed to vote for their leaders, and they voted for Trump. Funny how white people are allowed vote for a misogynistic racist and fascist, but those poor brown people are considered too lacking in common sense to vote for their own leaders. A bit of a double standard that!
Have the people of Gaza and the West Bank not suffered enough? I don’t mean that as a rhetorical question, I’m asking, when will it reach a point where my fellow human beings have been through so much terror, so much horror, that it’s finally decided, enough is enough? This madness has to end. Let Palestinians rule themselves. They may make mistakes, sometimes they may even vote for leaders who are bad for them, but the U.S voted for Trump, the U.K voted for Starmer, and Ireland keeps voting for that fucking shower of Fine Fail and Fine Gael, and nobody argues that those countries don’t deserve democracy. Palestinians deserve the same rights as American, British or Irish citizens. And anyone who disagrees needs to just accept the fact that they are a racist.
FREE PALESTINE
* I think it’s fairly unambiguous that everything that has happened to the people of Gaza post October 7th is a genocide. I usually refer to what happened to the people of Palestine before October 7th as apartheid, and what happened to them after that date as genocide. However, this is something I may reconsider in future, since I think an argument could be made that EVERYTHING that has been visited on the people of Palestine from 1948 on could be classed as genocide.
Ponderings Of An Autist 