"Being an eternal optimist, I hoped that the events of 7 October 2023 Hamas's attack on southern Israel and breaking of the Israeli siege of Gaza might precipitate a reappraisal of Israeli strategy towards the Palestinians. I hoped Israeli leaders would come to realise the futility of protecting their country by building walls, however impregnable. Instead, the attack did the opposite."
"Initially, I was shocked by this, and the dehumanisation of the people of Gaza which immediately came from Israeli leaders Yoav Gallant, who was defence minister at the time of the attack, justified the war by declaring: We are fighting human animals and are acting accordingly. I should not have been surprised. For many years, the army has been using similar tactics and language against Palestinians."
"The walls and checkpoints restricting contact between Israelis and Palestinians pushed the two sides further apart, making it possible to demonise each other even further. Even the ethnic cleansing which Israel is attempting in Gaza is not without precedent. In the 1948 Palestine war, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled or fled from their homes, and Israel's military carried out dozens of massacres targeting them."
The 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel and breach of the Gaza siege precipitated a large-scale Israeli military response. The ensuing war of revenge has lasted nearly two years, killing more than 65,000 Palestinians and destroying 92% of Gaza's residential buildings. Israeli leaders used dehumanising language, exemplified by Yoav Gallant's statement. Historical practices include house demolitions, shootings during raids, walls and checkpoints, and past expulsions in 1948. The scale of atrocities in Gaza since 7 October exceeds prior incidents, raising fears about implications for the West Bank.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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