The Palestinians: An explosion of rage
Israel is entirely to blame for its bloody new conflict with the Palestinians, said Baria Alamuddin in Arab News (Saudi Arabia). Israeli authorities chose the holy month of Ramadan to use their “fig leaf of a ‘justice’ system” to seek the eviction of six Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, where they have lived for some 70 years. It was yet another of the “racist land grabs” meant to “throttle Palestinians out of existence in their own capital.” Some 20,000 Palestinian homes throughout the city are currently under threat of demolition: This is “the very definition of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.” The evictions are only one source of anger, said Palestinian writer Muhammad Shehada in Haaretz (Israel). In recent weeks Arab-Israelis have been beaten by police for daring to protest against a far-right Jewish group that marched through Jerusalem chanting “Death to Arabs!” and attacking Palestinian passersby. When Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem last week, because Palestinians were stockpiling stones there in anticipation of more clashes with authorities and far-right Jewish nationalists, Hamas had to respond with rockets or be judged “irrelevant by the Palestinian street.”
Where are our Arab brethren when we are under attack? asked Ghazi Abu Daqqa in Felesteen (Gaza). “There is no room for any justification for those who refrain from jihad.” We are finally striking the Zionists in their cities, as they have long bombed ours, and our brave warriors in Gaza could destroy Israel once and for all if they were joined by forces from Lebanon and Syria in the north, from Iran and Iraq in the east, and Yemen in the south. Arab leaders won’t help, said Majid AlZibdeh, also in Felesteen. The United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Morocco, and Bahrain actually made peace with the Zionist occupiers last year under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords. We Palestinians are on our own. But Israeli Arabs, Gazans, and West Bank residents are united in supporting the armed resistance. The corrupt Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is a puppet of the Israelis. Hamas is “the undisputed legitimate leader of all the Palestinian people.”
Israel cannot claim the moral high ground, said Palestinian journalist Marwan Bishara in AlJazeera.com (Qatar). Having driven Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and occupied more territory in subsequent wars, it bears “the sin of a state founded on the ruin of another people.” That means there can be no good outcome for Israel. “When the dust settles on another sadistic Israeli war,” Israelis will again find themselves faced with “millions of Palestinians ever more determined to regain their liberty.”