On the 11th day of unrelenting and brutal Israeli attacks, over 2,800 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip and nearly 11,000 wounded. A staggering 64 per cent of the casualties are women and children.
The sky above Gaza continues to rain down a relentless barrage of missiles, reducing homes to rubble and leaving the 2.3 million civilians struggling to find food and water.
Images capture the raw desperation of Palestinians clawing through debris in search of survivors. Hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents have been displaced by Israel’s forced evacuation. Others are crowded into hospitals. A million people have been driven from their homes, and 400,000 displaced are crammed into UNRWA schools and buildings ill-equipped to serve as emergency shelters.
As Western nations fail to condemn Israel’s actions, voices such as Mustafa Barghouti’s, founder and leader of the Palestinian National Initiative (Al-Mubadara), are growing louder as they call for immediate intervention to stop the collective punishment of Palestinians and a halt to Israel’s “ethnic cleansing”. “Israel is killing all the Palestinian people, not just Hamas,” he says.
Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly by phone from the Occupied West Bank, Barghouti gives a sombre evaluation of the situation in Gaza.
“I think the Palestinian people are facing another Naqba. What we see in Gaza is barbaric, constant bombardment of Palestinians, the unlawful killing of civilians and the slaughter of children. No one can believe that what Netanyahu and his government are doing is an attempt to put an end to Hamas, and it appears to have been in planning for years.”
Barghouti believes Netanyahu and his government are using Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Flood Operation to advance long-standing plans and “rather than concealing their intentions as usual, this time Netanyahu and his government have openly stated that the entire population of Gaza should leave, with an Israeli military spokesperson saying they should go to Egypt.”
The execution of the plan began with the systematic dehumanising of Palestinians, their labelling as “human animals”, and spreading disinformation.
“We are facing lie after lie. I want to alert the West, remind them of what happened in Iraq when George Bush and Tony Blair repeatedly made false claims about weapons of mass destruction that were then used to justify an attack and occupation and the killing of a million Iraqis.”
“Israeli propaganda is now claiming that every Palestinian action, even the most non-violent, is an act of terror. Jewish individuals who support our cause are being labelled self-hating Jews.”
Barghouti points out that countries like Germany prevent the raising of the Palestinian flag, France suppresses protests supporting peace and calls for an end to war and the UK does the same.
“They lap up Netanyahu’s propaganda, even though his lies have been exposed one after another.” There was the image of a dog, manipulated by AI to appear as if it were a burned child, unfounded accusation of rape for which the New York Times had to later issue an apology, and false claims of children being beheaded for which CNN also had to apologise.
“What remains puzzling is that the president of the United States echoed Netanyahu’s assertions, later necessitating a correction by the White House.”
Barghouti is convinced Israel’s pre-planned operation will fail.
“First, there’s the Egyptian stance, which we hope will continue in rejecting the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt.” Egypt has so far kept the Rafah border crossing closed, awaiting a humanitarian agreement that will allow aid into Gaza and the entry of dual national Palestinians into Egypt.
Cairo remains apprehensive that any Palestinian displacement to Sinai could become permanent, and Palestinians fear Israel will not allow them to return. “The Palestinian resistance will fight this plan with everything they have, and Israel will pay a heavy price if it continues with it.”
Barghouti, who stood as a presidential candidate in 2005, argues the timing of Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Flood Operation was partly linked to Israel’s displacement ambitions. He refers to the map of the “New Middle East” presented by Netanyahu at the United Nations, where all of historical Palestine was shaded blue and there was no reference to the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Gaza. “It was a clear announcement,” he says, “that Israel intends to annex all Palestinian territory, which put pressure on Hamas”.
While another significant factor is the accelerating speed of normalisation with Arab countries and growing concern that the Palestinian cause is being sidelined, the main issue behind the timing are ongoing events in the West Bank where 240 Palestinians, including 40 children, have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since the beginning of the year. (A further 54 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October.)
“Settler terrorism has grown exponentially and includes the burning of Huwara and the ethnic cleansing of 20 Palestinian villages, in Hebron, Ramallah and the Jordan Valley.
“Israeli racism and arrogance has reached a peak,” which partly explains why Israel was so ill-prepared for the Hamas operation.
Western reactions, heavily biased towards Israel, carry the same racist overtones, with “some parties feeling a personal insult from the humiliation that had befallen Israel. It’s somehow insulting that these backward Arab Muslims outperformed them in such a glaring way.”
There is resentment that the Hamas operation dismantled the myth of Israeli invincibility and the illusion that Israel can maintain its occupation indefinitely. “It was a real shock to Israel, no less powerful than the shock 50 years ago when the Egyptian army crossed the Bar Lev Line.”
While some speculate Israel may have enticed Hamas into this operation as part of a premeditated strategy, and questions have been raised about the reasons behind the Israeli army’s eight-hour delay in responding, “Israel may simply have been caught off guard and lacked crucial information about the situation.” Would Israel genuinely risk the lives of 1,300 Israelis, including around 300 officers, and the capture by Hamas of high-ranking officers in the Israeli army, asks Barghouti.
“Whatever the case, Israel clearly believes that circumstances are favorable for the execution of its plan” which is why Israel is responding in this barbaric manner, capitalising on the military and financial support and the green light it has received from the US and European countries.
US aircraft carriers and munitions have been dispatched to the region to support Israel, with the US military preparing 2,000 troops for a potential deployment.
Barghouti hints at wider regional implications and the potential for a broader conflict. “This is possible, and the danger is that Israel might attempt a wide-scale ethnic cleansing against West Bank Palestinians, where the Palestinian Authority is weaker than ever.”
“There’s a significant likelihood of the northern front becoming embroiled, potentially leading to a conflict with Hizbullah that might escalate into a regional war, with an attempt to drag in Iran.”
Barghouti also suggests another, less devastating scenario: a shift in international public opinion driven by the exposure of Israeli falsehoods and compounded by Israel’s own losses. Given Israel’s inability to sustain a long-term conflict and the associated economic and ethical costs, there would then be a chance that the military battle will be halted.
“This is the most favourable scenario,“ according to Barghouti, since it could befollowed by serious efforts to lift the blockade, end the atrocities imposed on Gaza and result in an exchange of prisoners and a renewed political process.
A third possibility is an internal shift in Israel, with a groundswell of public demands that Netanyahu be ousted and held accountable for his negligence. “The families of Israeli captives now know that Netanyahu is willing to sacrifice their children in Gaza. This may lead to fragmentation of the Israeli domestic front due to the magnitude of the losses they are incurring.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 19 October, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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