Our Wednesday News Analysis | End of an Era: Pro-Palestine Language Exposes Israel, Zionism

If one were to argue that a top Spanish government official would someday declare that “from the river to the sea, Palestine would be free”, the suggestion itself would have seemed ludicrous.

"While it is true that Netanyahu fears an end to the war will be a terrible conclusion to his supposedly triumphant legacy as the ‘protector’ of Israel, there is more to the story.

If the war ends without Israel restoring its so-called deterrence and security, it will be forced to contend with the fact that the Palestinian people cannot be relegated and that their rights cannot be overlooked. For Israel, such a realization would be an end to its settler-colonial project, which began nearly a hundred years ago."

But this is precisely how Yolanda Diaz, Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister, concluded a statement on May 23, a few days before Spain officially recognized Palestine as a state.

The Spanish recognition of Palestine, along with the Norwegian and Irish recognition, is most important.

Western Europe is finally catching up with the rest of the world regarding the significance of a strong international position in support of the Palestinian people and rejection of Israel’s genocidal practices in occupied Palestine.

But equally important is the changing political discourse regarding both Palestine and Israel in Europe and all over the world.

Almost immediately after the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, some European countries imposed restrictions on pro-Palestinian protests, some even banning the Palestinian flag, which was perceived, through some twisted logic, as an antisemitic symbol.

With time, the unprecedented solidarity with Israel at the start of the war, however, turned into an outright political, legal, and moral liability to the pro-Israel Western governments.

Thus, a slow shift began, leading to a near-complete transformation in the position of some governments, and a partial though clear shift of the political discourse among others...

Read more: End of an Era: Pro-Palestine Language Exposes Israel, Zionism

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COLLATERAL GENOCIDE IN NUSEIRAT

Source: Al-Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/6/9/collateral-genocide-in-nuseirat

By Belén Fernández
Published June 9, 2024

In yet another Israeli massacre in Gaza, Palestinians are killed en masse and then summarily erased from the story.

Palestinians walk on the rubble of destroyed buildings following an assault by the Israeli army on the Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip on June 8, 2024 [Eyad Baba/AFP]

In the aftermath of the attack, the Israeli military unleashed a barrage of social media posts that made no mention whatsoever of Palestinian casualties but did offer such captivating analysis as that the captives were held by “Hamas terrorists who only seek to cause pain and suffering.”

On June 8, the Israeli military slaughtered at least 274 Palestinians and wounded nearly 700 more in a raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Concerned sectors of the international community responded with typical ineffectual handwringing; the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the latest Israeli “massacre of civilians”, declaring that “the bloodbath must end immediately”.

"… How will a ceasefire ever be reached –
or the “bloodbath” brought to an end, to borrow Borrell’s words –
when the US president himself is essentially praising Israel for conducting said bloodbath?"

Four Israeli captives held by Hamas were also rescued during the assault, which has sent Israeli social media into a jubilant tizzy of self-congratulation and genocidal fanfare. The internet is awash with sensational accounts of the rescue and the captives’ weepy reunification with loved ones – and never mind all those dead Palestinians.

Indeed, the blatant disregard for Palestinian life is hardly shocking in the context of a war that has officially killed more than 37,000 people in Gaza in just over eight months. The actual death toll is without a doubt far higher given the number of bodies remaining under the rubble.

Not that Palestinians have ever been humanised in the Israeli narrative – except, of course, when they can be exploited for propaganda purposes, like when Israel accuses Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as “human shields” and thereby justifies Israeli military attacks on hospitals and schools...

Read more: Collateral genocide in Nuseirat

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PALESTINE LETTER: WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WITNESS YOUR OWN NAKBA

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/palestine-letter-what-its-like-to-witness-your-own-nakba/

By TAREQ S. HAJJAJ
Published June 5, 2024

As a journalist, I have listened to countless stories of Nakba survivors. They would always say, "We thought we would return." I never imagined that in my lifetime I would be witnessing another Nakba, and saying the same thing.

DISPLACED PALESTINIANS ATTEMPTS TO MAKE THEIR WAY BACK TO NORTHERN GAZA TO THEIR HOMES, CENTRAL GAZA, APRIL 14, 2024. (PHOTO: OMAR ASHTAWY/APA IMAGES)

After al-Shifa Hospital, all the places I used to go to in Gaza, whether for work or to spend time with my family, I could see how the Israeli army was destroying them. All the pictures I kept of my family in those places suddenly became too difficult to look at.

Everything was fine a few days before this genocide began. The difficult conditions and suffering experienced by the Palestinians in Gaza created new opportunities and challenges. The Palestinians always invented unique ways to survive. Despite all these difficulties, a short trip to the sea helped people regain their balance and continue with the challenging life imposed by the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. However, there were no Israeli soldiers and forces in Gaza’s lands. There was some room for life inside the Strip. Now, after the Israeli army invaded Gaza, there is nothing left there except death and the loss of dreams and hopes.

When I was displaced for the first time out of Gaza City, taking my family with me to the city of Khan Younis, none of us imagined that returning to Gaza City would become impossible. Even though we did not carry all our luggage and belongings with us, we thought it would always be possible to return.

This is indeed what we thought...

Read more: Palestine Letter: What it’s like to witness your own Nakba