Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Why Is the Plight of Palestine a Total Non-Issue This Election?
________________________________________
Why Is the Plight of Palestine a Total Non-Issue This Election?
By Vijay Prashad [1] / AlterNet [2]
November 2, 2016
In 2006, Hillary Clinton sat down with the editorial board of the Jewish
Press. Asked about the elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
Clinton said that she was unhappy with the result because Hamas came out as
the winner. "I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the
Palestinian territories," she says in a tape recording released a few days
ago. "I think that was a big mistake." Clinton wanted Fatah, the more
reliable partner, to win, not Hamas, whom the US considered a terrorist
organization. The entire US establishment wanted Fatah to win, so there is
nothing too surprising about Clinton's views. But then she said something
that should stop any democratically minded person: "And if we were going to
push for an election," she said, "then we should have made sure that we did
something to determine who was going to win."
The United States, in other words, not only should support one side or the
other in an electoral contest, but that it should do 'something' to fix the
outcome. The idea that a foreign power should intervene to manufacture an
electoral result would not come as a surprise to the US foreign policy
apparatus. Whether it was the Italian elections of 1948 or elections in
France and Greece in the post-War era, the Central Intelligence Agency of
the US intervened to defeat the Communists and usher in the conservatives.
Much the same took place in the 1953 elections in the Philippines and the
1955 elections in Japan. A habit developed - the view that 'something'
should be done to make sure that the pro-US forces win.
What happens when the US makes a 'big mistake' - as Clinton put it - and
does not intervene to ensure the correct result? Evidence over the past
several decades shows that the people of the country who vote incorrectly
are punished by various means - either by having their elected leaders
overthrown in coups (re: Arbenz in Guatemala from 1954) or their countries
are put under a medieval siege (Iran, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to
power in 2005). The victory of Hamas in 2006 resulted in a terrible outcome
for the Palestinians (already under occupation and denied right to their
land) - it led to a the blockade of Gaza, where Hamas won decisively, and to
a subsequent permanent green light from Washington for Israel's periodic and
brutal bombing of the enclave (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014). Gaza
bleeds because Israel and the United States seem to want to punish the
enclave for its electoral choices in 2005.
On 19 October, the new UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in the Palestinian territory - law professor Michael Lynk - submitted
his report. It makes for sober reading, as do all the reports of all
previous Special Rapporteurs. What is most striking about this report is
that it has a long section on the collapse of the Palestinian economy -
sharply in Gaza - and the great sense of hopelessness that is occasioned as
a result of this and of the heightened Israeli garrotte around the
Palestinians.
The sentences on the economy have a staccato sensibility - "The Palestinian
economy has not advanced" and "Unemployment is growing as a social scourge."
The data is exhausting. On Gaza, the Special Rapporteur writes, "In 2016,
two years after the most recent hostilities ended, only 45 per cent of
Gaza's energy needs are being met, causing between 16 and 18 hours of daily
power cuts; 70 per cent of Gaza's population only have piped water supplied
for between 6 and 8 hours, every 2 to 4 days; and 65,000 Gazans from the
2014 escalation of hostilities still do not have reconstructed homes." Such
facts are painful. They are an outcome of the blockade that was set up
because Israel and the United States did not like the election outcome of
2005.
Hopelessness permeates the report. Right at the opening, Lynk writes that
attacks and alleged attacks by Palestinians have been committed by minors,
"which is particularly worrying because of the hopelessness it seems to
represent." These attacks (and alleged attacks) are conducted by young
people who lunge at security guards with kitchen knives. There is something
deeply sad about this - these are not terrorists from some well-organized
group, but children who have been pushed against the wall. Late last year I
met some young people from the camps of Ramallah whose frustration was
palpable. "We have to do something," they said to me, "act in some way." The
world has closed around them: whether it is the wall that encircles them,
the checkpoints that demean them, the punitive demolitions and forcible
transfers that break up their communities or the impossibility for them to
imagine alternative futures.
I had read about the special violence against children from Nadera
Shahloub-Kevorkian, who teaches at the Hebrew University. Her work puts the
spotlight on the slow motion elimination of Palestinian childhood. I asked
Lynk about this issue of the children. "Many of the attacks or purported
attacks over the past year appeared to be committed by minors and young
adults," he said. When he was in Amman in July, Lynk heard about the
condition of the youth. "The picture we were painted told us that, among
many, there was a feeling that there is no viable political future on the
horizon, the occupation is deepening, the ugliness of the political rhetoric
defending the occupation is evident, the sense of personal confinement and
the lack of mobility to travel even short distances is palpable, the
unemployment rate among young Palestinians is serious and rising, and the
Palestinian political divide and the lack of a strategy forward all
intensifies the sense of despair." This is a toxic combination. It is why
Lynk writes in this UN report, "The plight of children is often a barometer
for the gravity of a situation."
Lack of Accountability.
One of the great unspoken tragedies of this situation is that there is
little serious criticism of the Israeli state. Criticism is hushed up with
accusations of anti-Semitism. Most recently American Express removed Pink
Floyd's Roger Waters from its advertisements for his criticism of the
Israeli occupation. This silencing has allowed Israel to duck any
accountability for its violations of international law. Indeed, Israel does
not permit Special Rapporteurs from entering the Occupied Territory, which
is a breach of its obligations as a member of the United Nations. Lynk met
people in Jordan, not in Palestine. What this attitude does is to allow
Israel to behave as it wills in Palestine - aware that it will not be
seriously criticized and that the United States will protect it from any
sanctions. In fact, a major weapons aid package from the Obama White House
is a character certificate for Israel to continue to operate its illegal
policies.
Michael Lynk catalogues the use of lethal force - "frequently without
justification." This makes for difficult reading. He told me that over the
past nine months Israeli human rights groups "have pointed to the extremely
low success rate when filing complaints to the Israeli military about
apparent human rights and security operational violations." For this reason,
this May, B'Tselem - one of Israel's most respected human rights groups -
has decided that it will no longer engage with Israel's military enforcement
system. This is after 25 years of such work. Yesh Din, another Israeli human
rights group, says that the lack of accountability means the "near impunity
from prosecution for Israeli Defense Force soldiers.' They are given a
license to operate as they will.
No wonder that Lynk's conclusion is bleak. "The lack of accountability is a
systemic and deeply ingrained issue,' he suggests. 'It helps to perpetuate a
cycle of continued violence, as soldiers appear to act with impunity, with
the message being sent that Palestinian lives do not matter, while the
Palestinian population becomes both more fearful and more desperate."
Lynk told me that the lack of accountability for the actions of Israeli
soldiers and the widespread use of collective punishment against the
Palestinians has increased political cynicism. It is what leads to
individual acts of violence. "This choice is ineffective and is often a
death warrant for the perpetrator," Lynk told me. "It reflects the despair
felt by many."
Politics is dying in Palestine. It is being killed by the occupation and its
enablers, including the United States. Pockets of resilience remain, but
these are under attack by Israel. The most recent non-violent activist to be
arrested by Israel is Salah Khawaja of the Popular Struggle Committee of
Ni'lin and Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. He is being held -
incommunicado - in Petah Tikva prison. When Clinton said that she did not
like the outcome of the 2006 election and that the US should have done
"something," she said, essentially, that the US should have defined the
outcome by covert means. Now, overtly, Israel is crushing the non-violent
peaceful demonstrators. It is putting the pressure on Palestine, suffocating
it into desperation. The world meanwhile remains silent.
Vijay Prashad is professor of international studies at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of 18 books, including Arab Spring,
Libyan Winter (AK Press, 2012), The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of
the Global South (Verso, 2013) and The Death of a Nation and the Future of
the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016). His columns
appear at AlterNet every Wednesday.
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Source URL:
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[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/vijay-prashad
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Why Is the Plight of
Palestine a Total Non-Issue This Election?
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Why Is the Plight of Palestine a Total Non-Issue This Election?
Why Is the Plight of Palestine a Total Non-Issue This Election?
By Vijay Prashad [1] / AlterNet [2]
November 2, 2016
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In 2006, Hillary Clinton sat down with the editorial board of the Jewish
Press. Asked about the elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
Clinton said that she was unhappy with the result because Hamas came out as
the winner. "I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the
Palestinian territories," she says in a tape recording released a few days
ago. "I think that was a big mistake." Clinton wanted Fatah, the more
reliable partner, to win, not Hamas, whom the US considered a terrorist
organization. The entire US establishment wanted Fatah to win, so there is
nothing too surprising about Clinton's views. But then she said something
that should stop any democratically minded person: "And if we were going to
push for an election," she said, "then we should have made sure that we did
something to determine who was going to win."
The United States, in other words, not only should support one side or the
other in an electoral contest, but that it should do 'something' to fix the
outcome. The idea that a foreign power should intervene to manufacture an
electoral result would not come as a surprise to the US foreign policy
apparatus. Whether it was the Italian elections of 1948 or elections in
France and Greece in the post-War era, the Central Intelligence Agency of
the US intervened to defeat the Communists and usher in the conservatives.
Much the same took place in the 1953 elections in the Philippines and the
1955 elections in Japan. A habit developed - the view that 'something'
should be done to make sure that the pro-US forces win.
What happens when the US makes a 'big mistake' - as Clinton put it - and
does not intervene to ensure the correct result? Evidence over the past
several decades shows that the people of the country who vote incorrectly
are punished by various means - either by having their elected leaders
overthrown in coups (re: Arbenz in Guatemala from 1954) or their countries
are put under a medieval siege (Iran, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to
power in 2005). The victory of Hamas in 2006 resulted in a terrible outcome
for the Palestinians (already under occupation and denied right to their
land) - it led to a the blockade of Gaza, where Hamas won decisively, and to
a subsequent permanent green light from Washington for Israel's periodic and
brutal bombing of the enclave (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014). Gaza
bleeds because Israel and the United States seem to want to punish the
enclave for its electoral choices in 2005.
On 19 October, the new UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in the Palestinian territory - law professor Michael Lynk - submitted
his report. It makes for sober reading, as do all the reports of all
previous Special Rapporteurs. What is most striking about this report is
that it has a long section on the collapse of the Palestinian economy -
sharply in Gaza - and the great sense of hopelessness that is occasioned as
a result of this and of the heightened Israeli garrotte around the
Palestinians.
The sentences on the economy have a staccato sensibility - "The Palestinian
economy has not advanced" and "Unemployment is growing as a social scourge."
The data is exhausting. On Gaza, the Special Rapporteur writes, "In 2016,
two years after the most recent hostilities ended, only 45 per cent of
Gaza's energy needs are being met, causing between 16 and 18 hours of daily
power cuts; 70 per cent of Gaza's population only have piped water supplied
for between 6 and 8 hours, every 2 to 4 days; and 65,000 Gazans from the
2014 escalation of hostilities still do not have reconstructed homes." Such
facts are painful. They are an outcome of the blockade that was set up
because Israel and the United States did not like the election outcome of
2005.
Hopelessness permeates the report. Right at the opening, Lynk writes that
attacks and alleged attacks by Palestinians have been committed by minors,
"which is particularly worrying because of the hopelessness it seems to
represent." These attacks (and alleged attacks) are conducted by young
people who lunge at security guards with kitchen knives. There is something
deeply sad about this - these are not terrorists from some well-organized
group, but children who have been pushed against the wall. Late last year I
met some young people from the camps of Ramallah whose frustration was
palpable. "We have to do something," they said to me, "act in some way." The
world has closed around them: whether it is the wall that encircles them,
the checkpoints that demean them, the punitive demolitions and forcible
transfers that break up their communities or the impossibility for them to
imagine alternative futures.
I had read about the special violence against children from Nadera
Shahloub-Kevorkian, who teaches at the Hebrew University. Her work puts the
spotlight on the slow motion elimination of Palestinian childhood. I asked
Lynk about this issue of the children. "Many of the attacks or purported
attacks over the past year appeared to be committed by minors and young
adults," he said. When he was in Amman in July, Lynk heard about the
condition of the youth. "The picture we were painted told us that, among
many, there was a feeling that there is no viable political future on the
horizon, the occupation is deepening, the ugliness of the political rhetoric
defending the occupation is evident, the sense of personal confinement and
the lack of mobility to travel even short distances is palpable, the
unemployment rate among young Palestinians is serious and rising, and the
Palestinian political divide and the lack of a strategy forward all
intensifies the sense of despair." This is a toxic combination. It is why
Lynk writes in this UN report, "The plight of children is often a barometer
for the gravity of a situation."
Lack of Accountability.
One of the great unspoken tragedies of this situation is that there is
little serious criticism of the Israeli state. Criticism is hushed up with
accusations of anti-Semitism. Most recently American Express removed Pink
Floyd's Roger Waters from its advertisements for his criticism of the
Israeli occupation. This silencing has allowed Israel to duck any
accountability for its violations of international law. Indeed, Israel does
not permit Special Rapporteurs from entering the Occupied Territory, which
is a breach of its obligations as a member of the United Nations. Lynk met
people in Jordan, not in Palestine. What this attitude does is to allow
Israel to behave as it wills in Palestine - aware that it will not be
seriously criticized and that the United States will protect it from any
sanctions. In fact, a major weapons aid package from the Obama White House
is a character certificate for Israel to continue to operate its illegal
policies.
Michael Lynk catalogues the use of lethal force - "frequently without
justification." This makes for difficult reading. He told me that over the
past nine months Israeli human rights groups "have pointed to the extremely
low success rate when filing complaints to the Israeli military about
apparent human rights and security operational violations." For this reason,
this May, B'Tselem - one of Israel's most respected human rights groups -
has decided that it will no longer engage with Israel's military enforcement
system. This is after 25 years of such work. Yesh Din, another Israeli human
rights group, says that the lack of accountability means the "near impunity
from prosecution for Israeli Defense Force soldiers.' They are given a
license to operate as they will.
No wonder that Lynk's conclusion is bleak. "The lack of accountability is a
systemic and deeply ingrained issue,' he suggests. 'It helps to perpetuate a
cycle of continued violence, as soldiers appear to act with impunity, with
the message being sent that Palestinian lives do not matter, while the
Palestinian population becomes both more fearful and more desperate."
Lynk told me that the lack of accountability for the actions of Israeli
soldiers and the widespread use of collective punishment against the
Palestinians has increased political cynicism. It is what leads to
individual acts of violence. "This choice is ineffective and is often a
death warrant for the perpetrator," Lynk told me. "It reflects the despair
felt by many."
Politics is dying in Palestine. It is being killed by the occupation and its
enablers, including the United States. Pockets of resilience remain, but
these are under attack by Israel. The most recent non-violent activist to be
arrested by Israel is Salah Khawaja of the Popular Struggle Committee of
Ni'lin and Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. He is being held -
incommunicado - in Petah Tikva prison. When Clinton said that she did not
like the outcome of the 2006 election and that the US should have done
"something," she said, essentially, that the US should have defined the
outcome by covert means. Now, overtly, Israel is crushing the non-violent
peaceful demonstrators. It is putting the pressure on Palestine, suffocating
it into desperation. The world meanwhile remains silent.
Vijay Prashad is professor of international studies at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of 18 books, including Arab Spring,
Libyan Winter (AK Press, 2012), The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of
the Global South (Verso, 2013) and The Death of a Nation and the Future of
the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016). His columns
appear at AlterNet every Wednesday.
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[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Why Is the Plight of
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[4] http://www.alternet.org/
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