clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Unbreakable Gaza

November 18, 2019 at 12:14 pm

Palestinians collect their usable clothes after Israeli airstrikes hit their homes in Khan Yunis, Gaza as tension rises between Israel and Gaza after commander in the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Gaza-based resistance faction Islamic Jihad, Bahaa Abu Al-Atta was killed by Israeli airstrike, on 13 November 2019. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency]

Without any pretext or justification, the Israeli enemy committed another crime against the Palestinian people by assassinating the military commander of Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigade in the Gaza Strip. Bahaa Abu Al-Ata and his wife were both killed as they slept in their home last week. Israel bombed their house, along with the house of another Al-Quds Brigade leader near Damascus, resulting in the death of his son. These attacks were followed by intense bombing of the Gaza Strip in air raids that killed 36 Palestinians, wounded almost 100 others, and destroyed more than 500 homes in just two days.

The resistance in Gaza responded with a barrage of rockets fired towards Tel Aviv, many of which Israel’s Iron Dome defence system failed to intercept. This scared the Israelis, who ran to their bunkers in panic, leaving their jobs and homes behind. With the near-complete paralysis of life in Israel, the government had no option but to ask Egypt and the UN to mediate and request a ceasefire. The colonial-settler state only understands the language of force and this reflects the fear that the Palestinian armed resistance created. War against the Palestinians in Gaza carries a heavy price for Israel, and will not be waged easily.

In confirmation that the Palestinians are a people who are ready to defy the Israeli occupation, despite its blatant aggression, they protested against the ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt and the UN. Protestors were angry in spontaneous demonstrations in Gaza and burned tyres as they called upon all of the military wings of the Palestinian resistance groups to respond to Israel’s crimes, not least the massacre of the Sawarka family which killed eight family members shortly before announcing the truce.

READ: Are the killings of women and children a real victory on terror? 

Armed resistance is the only way to liberate Palestine from the Zionist occupation; all of the historic land from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea. Resistance is legitimate in international law and it is the only way to recover lost Palestine. Anything else is a mirage and misguided; the alleged “peace process” is nothing more than surrender to the status quo.

The Palestinians were tricked by the Oslo Accords, which relinquished the Palestinian national constants and replaced them with the recognition of Israel. This was once a taboo that no one dared to utter or go near. It was exchanged for a fake Palestinian Authority and false promises of the establishment of a fake Palestinian state that only exists on paper.

Another attack on Gaza: Israel squeezing the life of Gaza - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Another attack on Gaza: Israel squeezing the life of Gaza – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

The Palestinians have been living for the past quarter of a century at a loss, entering into negotiations after negotiations in an endless and ultimately meaningless cycle. Now negotiations are just being held for the sake of negotiations, and the Palestinian cause has been lost in the corridors of such talks and the futility of deliberations. They seem to have forgotten, or overlooked, the fact that their cause is to liberate the land stolen from them and that this requires them to struggle against the occupier; it is not a conflict between equal parties that requires negotiations and mediators. They have been blinded to the extent that they even trusted the Americans, believing them to be honest brokers.

The delusional PA has spent a quarter of a century of being lost, but we should not be surprised. It has always been part of the Zionist project in its security coordination with the occupation forces. It is the PA security forces which pursue resistance activists across the occupied territories in order to liquidate them and the Palestinian cause. Such coordination should be ended; the PA should be closed down; the Oslo Accords should be torn up; and the Palestinians should return to armed resistance, with the Gaza Strip as a model of dignity and pride.

The Palestinians in Gaza will continue to prove that the Arab and Muslim nation, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf, has surrendered, and wrongly so. It is as if the enclave has become the standard by which the rest of region can be judged in terms of strength, cohesion and unity in every round of Israel aggression that it faces. Gaza provides us with the feeling that it is unbreakable, and will not die in the hearts of our glorious nation. Victory and glory to our heroes in Gaza.

READ: How Western media bias allows Israel to getaway with murder in Gaza 

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.