'Blood and Fire and Slaughter': Critics Remember Dark Legacy of Shimon Peres
Published on
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
by
Common Dreams
'Blood and Fire and Slaughter': Critics Remember Dark Legacy of Shimon Peres
For many, death of former Israeli prime minister triggers memories of a 'war
criminal' not a 'peacemaker'
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
Shimon Peres, former prime minister of Israel, was hospitalized following a
stroke two weeks ago. He died early Wednesday at the age of 93. (Photo:
AFP/file)
Following the passing of Shimon Peres-who died early Wednesday morning at
the age of 93 after a recent stroke-much of the global mainstream press
responded with adulation and mourning. At the same time, however, informed
critics took the news as an opportunity to remind the world of the troubling
and oppressive legacy of the former Israeli prime minister.
Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper
The Independent, wrote in his column Wednesday: "When the world heard that
Shimon Peres had died, it shouted 'Peacemaker!' But when I heard that Peres
was dead, I thought of blood and fire and slaughter."
"This was a man who from the very beginning [of his political career] was a
war criminal. This was somebody who believed in the ethnic cleansing of
Palestine."
-Diana Buttu, former Palestinian negotiator
Though Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role in brokering
the Oslo peace accords, Fisk and others dispute the idea he should be upheld
in such regard.
In the wake of his death, as Ma'an News Agency reports:
[Critics of Peres] were quick to point out that Peres joined the Haganah
paramilitary group after he and his family moved from Belarus to British
Mandate of Palestine in 1930. The Haganah was one of the principal forces
behind the Nakba, or catastrophe-that left around 750,000 Palestinians as
refugees abroad and wiped out some 500 Palestinian villages.
He also played a key role in the establishment of the first illegal Israeli
settlements in the West Bank through vast land confiscations of
privately-owned Palestinian land, and became a fierce defender of the
Israeli military's multiple assaults and continued blockade on the Gaza
Strip. During his tenure as prime minister in 1996, Peres also ordered and
oversaw the Qana massacre in Lebanon in which the Israeli military killed
and injured hundreds of civilians and UN peacekeepers.
"His image as a man of peace and his image as a man who went from a 'hawk'
to a 'dove' betrays a fundamental blind spot with regards to the experience
of the Palestinians and others in the region under Israeli colonialism and
the policies of displacement, exile, and occupation that Shimon Peres and
others were instrumental in implementing."
-Ben White, journalistIn his column, Fisk says he remembers the Qana
massacre-and the role Prime Minister Peres played in executing and defending
it-quite well. A Palestinian refugee facility run by the United Nations
inside Lebanon, Qana was shelled mercilessly by the Israeli military
following claims of nearby rocket fire. An estimated 106 civilians were
killed and more than 100 others wounded in the attack. After defending the
attack and then losing a subsequent re-election bid, Fisk assumes that Peres
"probably never thought much more about Qana," but admitted that as a
journalist on the ground, he "never forgot" what he saw when he entered the
compound:
When I reached the UN gates, blood was pouring through them in torrents. I
could smell it. It washed over our shoes and stuck to them like glue. There
were legs and arms, babies without heads, old men's heads without bodies. A
man's body was hanging in two pieces in a burning tree. What was left of him
was on fire.
On the steps of the barracks, a girl sat holding a man with grey hair, her
arm round his shoulder, rocking the corpse back and forth in her arms. His
eyes were staring at her. She was keening and weeping and crying, over and
over: "My father, my father." If she is still alive - and there was to be
another Qana massacre in the years to come, this time from the Israeli air
force - I doubt if the word "peacemaker" will be crossing her lips.
Speaking on Al-Jazeera English, former Palestinian peace negotiator Diana
Buttu said Peres should "absolutely not" be remembered as a man of peace.
"This was a man who from the very beginning [of his political career] was a
war criminal. This was somebody who believed in the ethnic cleansing of
Palestine and was somebody-when he was in a position of power-made sure that
Palestinian land-land that was occupied, not captured-was then turned over
and made into Jewish-Israeli settlements, which are war crimes under
international law."
Watch:
Separately on Al-Jazeera, Ben White, a journalist who has written several
books on Israel/Palestine, also discussed the dark and troubling legacy of
Peres' leadership as he questioned the dominant media and historical
narrative emerging in the wake of his death.
"His image as a man of peace and his image as a man who went from a 'hawk'
to a 'dove' betrays a fundamental blind spot with regards to the experience
of the Palestinians and others in the region under Israeli colonialism and
the policies of displacement, exile, and occupation that Shimon Peres and
others were instrumental in implementing," White explained. "Those policies
have been omitted and dismissed from the historical record today and on
other occasions as well when other Israeli figures have passed away."
Yehia Ghanem, an Egyptian journalist and international war correspondent,
said it's no surprise that Peres is receiving praise despite his deplorable
record when it comes to human rights and the oppression of the Palestinian
people.
Those people who "are praising him," said Ghanem, are the same people who
have "supported Israel and all of its crimes throughout its history."
And while Fisk predicted the word "peace" will be used numerously in the
various obituaries and tributes written in the next few days, he asked his
readers to pay attention and also "count how many times the word Qana
appears."
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
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'Blood and Fire and Slaughter': Critics Remember Dark Legacy of Shimon Peres
Published on
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
by
Common Dreams
'Blood and Fire and Slaughter': Critics Remember Dark Legacy of Shimon Peres
For many, death of former Israeli prime minister triggers memories of a 'war
criminal' not a 'peacemaker'
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
. 25 Comments
.
. Shimon Peres, former prime minister of Israel, was hospitalized
following a stroke two weeks ago. He died early Wednesday at the age of 93.
(Photo: AFP/file)
. Following the passing of Shimon Peres-who died early Wednesday
morning at the age of 93 after a recent stroke-much of the global mainstream
press responded with adulation and mourning. At the same time, however,
informed critics took the news as an opportunity to remind the world of the
troubling and oppressive legacy of the former Israeli prime minister.
. Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East correspondent for the British
newspaper The Independent, wrote in his column Wednesday: "When the world
heard that Shimon Peres had died, it shouted 'Peacemaker!' But when I heard
that Peres was dead, I thought of blood and fire and slaughter."
. "This was a man who from the very beginning [of his political
career] was a war criminal. This was somebody who believed in the ethnic
cleansing of Palestine."
-Diana Buttu, former Palestinian negotiator
. Though Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role in
brokering the Oslo peace accords, Fisk and others dispute the idea he should
be upheld in such regard.
In the wake of his death, as Ma'an News Agency reports:
[Critics of Peres] were quick to point out that Peres joined the Haganah
paramilitary group after he and his family moved from Belarus to British
Mandate of Palestine in 1930. The Haganah was one of the principal forces
behind the Nakba, or catastrophe-that left around 750,000 Palestinians as
refugees abroad and wiped out some 500 Palestinian villages.
He also played a key role in the establishment of the first illegal Israeli
settlements in the West Bank through vast land confiscations of
privately-owned Palestinian land, and became a fierce defender of the
Israeli military's multiple assaults and continued blockade on the Gaza
Strip. During his tenure as prime minister in 1996, Peres also ordered and
oversaw the Qana massacre in Lebanon in which the Israeli military killed
and injured hundreds of civilians and UN peacekeepers.
"His image as a man of peace and his image as a man who went from a 'hawk'
to a 'dove' betrays a fundamental blind spot with regards to the experience
of the Palestinians and others in the region under Israeli colonialism and
the policies of displacement, exile, and occupation that Shimon Peres and
others were instrumental in implementing."
-Ben White, journalistIn his column, Fisk says he remembers the Qana
massacre-and the role Prime Minister Peres played in executing and defending
it-quite well. A Palestinian refugee facility run by the United Nations
inside Lebanon, Qana was shelled mercilessly by the Israeli military
following claims of nearby rocket fire. An estimated 106 civilians were
killed and more than 100 others wounded in the attack. After defending the
attack and then losing a subsequent re-election bid, Fisk assumes that Peres
"probably never thought much more about Qana," but admitted that as a
journalist on the ground, he "never forgot" what he saw when he entered the
compound:
When I reached the UN gates, blood was pouring through them in torrents. I
could smell it. It washed over our shoes and stuck to them like glue. There
were legs and arms, babies without heads, old men's heads without bodies. A
man's body was hanging in two pieces in a burning tree. What was left of him
was on fire.
On the steps of the barracks, a girl sat holding a man with grey hair, her
arm round his shoulder, rocking the corpse back and forth in her arms. His
eyes were staring at her. She was keening and weeping and crying, over and
over: "My father, my father." If she is still alive - and there was to be
another Qana massacre in the years to come, this time from the Israeli air
force - I doubt if the word "peacemaker" will be crossing her lips.
Speaking on Al-Jazeera English, former Palestinian peace negotiator Diana
Buttu said Peres should "absolutely not" be remembered as a man of peace.
"This was a man who from the very beginning [of his political career] was a
war criminal. This was somebody who believed in the ethnic cleansing of
Palestine and was somebody-when he was in a position of power-made sure that
Palestinian land-land that was occupied, not captured-was then turned over
and made into Jewish-Israeli settlements, which are war crimes under
international law."
Watch:
Separately on Al-Jazeera, Ben White, a journalist who has written several
books on Israel/Palestine, also discussed the dark and troubling legacy of
Peres' leadership as he questioned the dominant media and historical
narrative emerging in the wake of his death.
"His image as a man of peace and his image as a man who went from a 'hawk'
to a 'dove' betrays a fundamental blind spot with regards to the experience
of the Palestinians and others in the region under Israeli colonialism and
the policies of displacement, exile, and occupation that Shimon Peres and
others were instrumental in implementing," White explained. "Those policies
have been omitted and dismissed from the historical record today and on
other occasions as well when other Israeli figures have passed away."
Yehia Ghanem, an Egyptian journalist and international war correspondent,
said it's no surprise that Peres is receiving praise despite his deplorable
record when it comes to human rights and the oppression of the Palestinian
people.
Those people who "are praising him," said Ghanem, are the same people who
have "supported Israel and all of its crimes throughout its history."
And while Fisk predicted the word "peace" will be used numerously in the
various obituaries and tributes written in the next few days, he asked his
readers to pay attention and also "count how many times the word Qana
appears."
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
