Who can (really ) end the cycle of violence?

November 2012, Gaza.

Four years after “Operation Cast Lead” which costs the lives of more than 1400 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, Israel is at it again. This time, it is called “Operation Pillar of Cloud”.

The whys of this new attack have already been debated in newspapers, on TV, radio and on the blogosphere.

If you still watch TV or anything owned by the Corporate/Mainstream media, you would have heard countless of times that Israel had no other choice and had to defend itself against Rocket Fire coming from Gaza and its terrorist organisation: KHAMAS (the letter k has been added for pronunciation as well as special effects). You would also be bound to believe that between “Operation Cast Lead” in 2008/2009 and “Operation Pillar of Cloud” in 2012, all had been quiet on the Gaza waterfront. Four years of sun tan, ice cream and picnics on the beach for the Palestinians.

If you dig further, the upcoming January 2013 elections in Israel, the need to show deterrence and invent a justification before a forthcoming aggression on Iran, the itch to test the new Muslim brotherhood led Egyptian government, the hardly hidden excitement to try out their latest toy “The Iron Dome” or the imperialist tactic of trying to divide even more Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have all been named as possible reasons for “Operation Pillar of Cloud”. A combination of all those things probably explains best the Israeli Government new ‘outing’ in Gaza.

Having looked into things a bit further, away from the profit driven spectacle that our news channels have now become, you would also have found out that things, in fact, for the Palestinians, have not been that rosy between the two Israelis “Operations”. As a matter of fact, 314 Palestinians have been killed since 2009.

You would also have found out that since the recent ‘conflict’ started on November 14^th, approximately 23% of the fatalities have been children.

Now that the roots of this latest war have been established (at least partly) and debated endlessly, the media’s focus has shifted to the urgency of “de-escalating” the conflict and work on a ceasefire. What needs to be done, as soon as possible, is to stop the violence and end the loss of life, on both sides.

A ceasefire was agreed on late on Thursday 22 November (see text here) but every sensible commentator knows that it will once again only be a stop-gap before another Israeli assault. The real urgency is to find a real and concrete solution and end the violence, all in all, for good. As Noura Erakat said on a panel on MSNBC recently (see here first video at 07:13): “If all rocket fire were to stop today and aerial missile strikes, and Israel’s ground offensive were to stop, the violence against the Palestinians would continue unabated”.

So who is to make sure that Israel becomes accountable for its actions, stops building more colonies in occupied Palestinian Territories, ends the longest occupation in history, its apartheid policies both inside and outside the Green Line, dismantles the wall (in accordance with the 2004 ICJ ruling on the wall), stops targeted (aka extra judicial assassinations).

As usual, we are presented with the same options and the same team of negotiators and possible saviours.

Number one negotiator in chief is of course the only superpower on earth remaining, the democracy and freedom lover, the “honest-broker”, the one and only United States of America.

Hillary Clinton “dashed to the Middle East” to try to broker a ceasefire the Washington Post is telling us. Superwoman, flying to the rescue of people in need!

Clinton, Secretary of State, of a State, that is actually funding Israel’s latest adventure.

While Clinton talks to Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, US planes, drones and apache helicopters are carpet bombing the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. Since 1976 Israel has been the largest recipient of US foreign aid and has received since the end of World War II around $115 billion in economic aid. Aid to Israel, a country of around 8 million inhabitants, has averaged about 25% of all US foreign aid.

The US also gives Israel 60% of the US foreign Military Financing (FMF) funding which also makes it the largest recipient of US military funding.

Crucially, the US also provides Israel with Diplomatic Support. Since 1972, the US has used its veto at the Security Council to protect Israel more than 43 times. It did so again last week when it blocked a UN Security Council Statement calling for a ceasefire labelling it “unbalanced”.

Outside of Israel/Palestine, the USA is also very active in occupying Iraq, Afghanistan and drone bombing Pakistan and Yemen.

So who else could end the violence and save us?

The United Kingdom, also involved in war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and that has in its history invaded 90% of the world’s countries?

The recently Nobel Prize Winner, the European Union, that is slowly becoming more and more of a poodle of the USA, and that includes countries that have been involved in more wars and atrocities in their history than the rest of the world combined?

Or maybe the Middle East Quartet, led by the irrepressible Warmonger in chief Tony Blair?

Can violence and war junkies states that have been engaged in state terrorism for decades and are actually directly or indirectly responsible for much of the world’s violence really be in charge of world peace? Are we really to believe this? Have they and their huge media apparatus fooled us for good? Have we lost the capacity to concentrate on historical facts and actions instead of words? Does a War criminal only needs a smile, a suit and a tie to become a dove?

The only answer possible to this question is no, they can’t.

So what does this leave us with?

Us, the people.

But how can we do it?

By regaining the power and changing the policy. To do so, we first have to get rid of the present policy makers.

A good start would be for us to break this habit of believing that anyone on TV, in office, with a white suit or a uniform knows better than us and is an authoritative voice not to be challenged. It might take a while as we have been taught to respect those father like figures from the earliest age, from our first classes in school, from our first steps but it is possible and necessary.

We have to be sceptical, challenge power and look for the truth ourselves. It is available, if we do spend enough time looking for it. We have to stop believing that we do not have the choice. We do.

Then, once we have managed to wash ourselves clean of years of brainwashing, we have to break the system as we know it and start all over again. Representative governments have never equalled democracy. They have never meant democracy and have actually often been the total opposite of it. Ancient Greece would laugh out loud at the idea. We have to re-write the rules that have been written by oligarchs (when you have a chance, try to read various countries constitutions, you’ll be surprised) to make sure that their power will not ever be challenged and to make certain that the people will never be able to take it way from them. (the real meaning of democracy). How else can we explain that in 200 years of representative democracy, only the rich (the 1%) have governed with the poor (the 99%) never having had the chance to be in charge of their own destiny?

To live in a world where justice, equal rights and freedom for all will be the main motto, we first have to break away from what is radically wrong. What name we will give this new world? What type of world would it really be in practice?

We do not know yet but it will certainly be better than this one.

 

Zebda: “La Palestine resonne au plus profond de notre histoire”

Le groupe Zebda, nouveau parrain du Tribunal Russell sur la Palestine, parle pour l’une des premieres fois de sa chanson sur Gaza “Une vie de moins“.

Frank Barat: Vous avez sorti en octobre, en collaboration avec Jean-Pierre Filiu, “une vie de moins” une chanson et un vidéo clip ayant pour sujet la bande de Gaza. Comment est née cette collaboration entre un prof a Science Po et un groupe de musique Toulousain?

Zebda: Nous avons rencontré Jean Pierre à la fin des années 90, lors d’une tournée avec l’alliance française en Syrie, Jordanie et Liban il était à cette époque là diplomate et déjà grand connaisseur du monde arabe, nous sommes tout de suite devenus amis et nos différents échanges nous ont amené à cette collaboration.

-Pourquoi avoir fait cela maintenant?

Nous voulions dire que si la Palestine a disparu des écrans de télévision elle n’a pas disparu de nos consciences et qu’en parler reste très important pour nous. La chanson existe depuis quelques temps mais nous voulions absolument des images pour l’accompagner nous avons donc confié cette tache à Ali Guessoum qui sans aucun moyen a réalisé ce magnifique clip.

-Le CRIF a récemment attaque le groupe disant que cette chanson “risquait de promouvoir la haine”. Que répondez vous a cette accusation?

On ne voit pas en quoi cette chanson est un appel à la haine, ça ressemble surtout à la pression qu’ils ont l’habitude de mettre dès qu’on critique la politique de l’état d’Israël, c’est une véritable OPA sur le langage qu’il mène depuis des années on a plus le droit de parler de la question palestinienne sans être taxé d’antisémitisme ou de pro-islamisme larvé, nous répondons que nous préférons la parole au silence et que leur attitude nourrit tous les fantasmes et les amalgames.

-Quelles ont été les autres réactions autour de vous?

Nous avons reçu énormément de messages de remerciements et de soutiens, essentiellement de personnes, de collectifs qui sont loin d’être des extrémistes, cela signifie pour nous que la chanson joue son rôle, qu’elle accompagne le sentiment d’injustice, qu’elle fait exister l’émotion que cela provoque, elle est donc à l’opposé d’un appel haineux.

-Que signifie “Palestine” pour le groupe ZEBDA?

Palestine, résonne au plus profond de notre histoire car depuis notre enfance on en entend parler dans nos familles. Dernier symbole tragique d’une colonisation, d’une sorte d’apartheid, l’injustice perdure mais la résistance aussi, Palestine devient pour nous une forme d’identité politique pour une vision du monde dans lequel on vit.

-Avez vous déjà été jouer en Palestine? Si non, aimeriez vous le faire?

Non jamais mais nous voudrions vraiment le faire.

-Quel est le rôle des artistes dans la société d’aujourd’hui, a votre avis?

Le rôle des artistes est d’accompagner la vie des gens, de mettre des mots, des images, des sons sur leurs émotions et leurs ressentis, et puis de temps en temps de libérer la parole.