Six on History: Israel and Palestine
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"There are many ways to court the world’s media, and the state of Israel has seemingly tried all of them. In recent years, that’s included a prolific use of social media—for example, cringey tweets about the Israel Defense Forces being “the most vegan army in the world”—and online influence campaigns, to the point where there’s a popular Hebrew term—hasbara—that refers to the dissemination of feel-good propaganda whitewashing Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.
Over the weekend, that strategy included the Israeli government lying to the international press about invading Gaza and then bragging about it in Hebrew-language media. Lying about a Gaza ground invasion reportedly helped Israel flush out some Hamas fighters, who were killed. Later, the Israeli air force destroyed the Associated Press and Al Jazeera bureaus in Gaza, using U.S.-supplied weapons. Video circulated on social media showed reporters hurriedly gathering what equipment they could before the 11-story building came down.
Destroying these media bureaus is far from the most brutal or outrageous act Israeli forces have committed during this latest round of violence. What it is, though, is a direct attack on the media’s ability to operate in Gaza—much foreign media is barred from entering the small coastal territory—and to tell the world what’s going on. It’s clear that the Israeli government has come to regard, perhaps always has regarded, the media as an adversary to be manipulated, undermined, and, when necessary, attacked. And yet many mainstream news outlets have yet to realize or accept this, instead treating Israeli military spokespeople as good-faith interlocutors. They are anything but. ... "
"Yesterday, without prior warning, a close relative of mine, 84, experienced an eruption of long-suppressed memories of his traumatic childhood during the 1948 Nakba, and was overcome by mixed feelings of ominous fear and liberating hope. While unbearable, the images of Israel’s latest massacre in the besieged Gaza Strip, euphemistically coded as “Guardian of the Walls,” did not bring him to this emotional tipping point, nor the images of the brutal repression of worshippers in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound or the relentless forcible displacement in Sheikh Jarrah and around occupied East Jerusalem. What did was the view, from his little balcony in Akka (Acre), of young Palestinians struggling to fend off a mob of far-right Jewish Israelis roaming the streets chanting “Death to Arabs” and hunting for Palestinians to lynch. This scene was repeated against Indigenous Palestinian communities in Lydda, Jaffa, Ramleh, Haifa, Bat Yam, and elsewhere, triggering calls for international protection.
As my relative watched, memories of his beloved Haifa in 1948 gushed through his mind. Zionist militias, aided by British soldiers, literally chasing Palestinians at gunpoint to the sea. The makeshift raft his family had to board, instructed by the British to sail to Lebanon “for safety.” His father’s wise decision to disembark in Acre instead. Yet, even as these memories filled his mind—memories of existential fear and the trauma of vulnerability—they shared space with a new and inexplicable hope. “My generation lost Palestine,” he said. He then continued with a defiant inflection and a smile: “But this new generation is courageous, resilient, determined to resist and to overcome 73 years of our ongoing Nakba. All they… I mean all we need is some, just some, more courage from the world.”
It is not naïveté or fatalism that gives hope to my elder relative or to most Palestinians of all generations dispersed across the world. It is the fact that the dual walls that Israel has so systematically built over decades—the walls it is truly trying to “guard”—are showing some serious cracks, if not beginning to collapse. The first of these walls is Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s “iron wall” of despair that has colonized Palestinian minds. The second, just as inhibiting and debilitating, is the wall of intimidation that inhibits many people of influence worldwide from speaking out for Palestinian rights. ..."
In 1923, Jabotinsky, a prominent Zionist leader, theorized the necessity of the first wall: “Every native population in the world resists colonists as long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonized…. Zionist colonization must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population.” He recommended an “iron wall” to overpower the native Arab Palestinian population, partly by colonizing our minds with hopelessness and the internalization of inferiority, as Frantz Fanon puts it. Decades later, and backed by the United States and the European Union, Israel has built concrete walls and employed its Dahiya Doctrine (a doctrine of extreme, “disproportionate” violence targeting Palestinian—and Lebanese—civilians and civilian infrastructure) precisely to sear into our collective consciousness the futility of resisting its colonial hegemony.
As for the other wall, Israel and its lobby groups have invested massive resources in building it in the minds of opinion shapers globally, especially in the West, making the price of dissent, of defending Palestinian rights, ruthlessly painful to one’s career, reputation, and even mental health. Analyzing this wall, Edward Said explained how “avoidance” and “fear of speaking out about one of the greatest injustices in modern history [Palestine] has hobbled, blinkered, muzzled many who know the truth and are in a position to serve it.”
Cracks in both walls have started to widen under pressure from fearless Palestinian popular resistance across historic Palestine and the corresponding courage that Hollywood celebrities, prominent musicians, star athletes, and millions of activists worldwide are displaying. The bravery of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah defending their homes against forcible displacement is among the factors inspiring tens of thousands of other Palestinians who have participated in civil disobedience. The same Palestinian bravery was visible in the thousands who defended the occupied Old City of Jerusalem against a “pogrom” by Israeli “Jewish fascists”—a pogrom, moreover, encouraged by government officials expressing “racist, even genocidal animus towards Palestinians”—as the progressive Jewish American group If Not Now described it.
This bravery has inspired an outpouring of support across new and vital parts of the US landscape: Expressing a growing sentiment in the US Congress, and connecting military funding to Israel with social and justice struggles at home, representative Cori Bush said, “The fight for Black lives and the fight for Palestinian liberation are interconnected. We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma.… we are anti-apartheid. Period.” Susan Sarandon tweeted, “What’s happening in Palestine is settler-colonialism, military occupation, land theft and ethnic cleansing.” Halsey wrote, “It is not ‘too complicated to understand’ that brown children are being murdered + people are being displaced under the occupation of one of the most powerful armies in the world.” Viola Davis, Mark Ruffalo, Natalie Portman, and many others expressed solidarity with Palestinians.
A particularly important source of Palestinian hope is the growing impact of the Palestinian-led nonviolent BDS movement, which aims at ending Israel’s regime of military occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid and defending the right of Palestinian refugees to return home. Sovereign funds in Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and elsewhere have divested from Israeli or international companies and banks that are implicated in Israel’s occupation. Mainstream churches in South Africa have endorsed BDS, while major churches in the United States, including the Presbyterian Church and the United Methodist Church, have divested from complicit US companies and/or Israeli banks. The city of Dublin in 2018 became the first European capital to adopt BDS, while tens of other cities and hundreds of cultural institutions and public spaces across Europe have declared themselves Israeli Apartheid Free Zones. BDS has won the endorsement of major international trade union federations in South Africa, Latin America, India, Europe, Canada, and the United States. Thousands of artists, academics, and hundreds of student governments, LGBTQI+ groups, and social justice movements across the world have also endorsed BDS accountability measures.
The main contribution of the BDS movement to Palestinian liberation, however, is its role in decolonizing Palestinian minds from deeply seated powerlessness, and in leading a radical praxis of globalized, intersectional resistance, transformation, and emancipation.
"As of this writing, terrorists in Gaza — the word “terrorist” fits people who take indiscriminate aim at civilians to achieve political goals — have fired some 1,750 rockets at Israel since Monday.
That’s a number worth pausing over, and not just because it has had the effect of overwhelming Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense. Gaza is often said to be sealed off and utterly destitute. Yet Hamas, which rules Gaza, seems not to have had too much trouble amassing this kind of arsenal, or too many qualms employing it in a way it knew was sure to incur a heavy Israeli response.
Now let’s hope the administration’s attitude lasts. The tactics of Hamas are to house its arsenals in schools and mosques, set up headquarters in the basement of hospitals and fire its missiles from sites next to crowded apartment buildings and hotels housing foreign journalists.
The cynicism is breathtaking. It ought to be widely condemned as a form of terrorism against ordinary Palestinians, whose visible suffering is as central to Hamas’s global purposes as is the suffering of Israeli civilians to its domestic purposes. But if past experience is anything to go by, an errant Israeli mortar or missile will mistakenly hit a civilian target, generating furious claims that Israel has committed war crimes, along with intense diplomatic pressure for Jerusalem to “de-escalate” and seek a cease-fire — at least until the next round of fighting.
In that case, the result would be a political victory for Hamas, achieved not only at a heavy price in Palestinian lives but also at the expense of Palestinian moderates, who’d look like weaklings or fools for opposing the strategy of violent “resistance.”
That’s a test the Biden administration has so far passed: Both the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have issued statements stressing that “Israel has a right to defend itself.” Good. It’s more than can be said for progressives such as Bernie Sanders, who blamed “the irresponsible actions of government-allied right-wing extremists in Jerusalem” for the fighting without adding a word of condemnation for Hamas. ... "
"We speak with Palestinian reporter Youmna al-Sayed, who was among the journalists who had to flee for their lives when Israel bombed and leveled a 12-story Gaza building that housed the offices of media organizations including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Israel has claimed, without evidence, that the building was being used by Hamas operatives, but al-Sayed says it’s part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on media. “This is no coincidence,” she says.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman.
On Saturday, Israel leveled a 12-story building housing the offices of Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other media outlets. Israel justified the bombing claiming Hamas uses the building, but offered no proof. Earlier today, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken said he has not seen any Israeli evidence of Hamas operating in the building. While Israel gave advance notice of the attack, the head of Al Jazeera called the attack a “blatant violation of human rights” and “war crime.” Associated Press is demanding an independent investigation. They said they know of no evidence of Hamas operating in the building.
Youmna al-Sayed is a reporter for the Associated Press in the Gaza Strip. She’s been covering Israel’s attack on Gaza over the past week.
You work with Al Jazeera, as well. Talk about what happened to the building. Talk about where you work.
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: Hi. Yes, I’m Youmna al-Sayed. I’m a reporter at the Associated Press, and I broadcast for Al Jazeera from Associated Press.
While we were at the building, on a normal day of work, like reporting aggression that is happening on the Gaza Strip, we suddenly got a call by the owner of the building saying that he was called by the Israeli army and he’s been asked to tell the residents of the building to immediately evacuate. In an hour, the building shall be targeted. So, this was an emergency situation for us. Everybody was — honestly, everyone was, like, frightened of what is going on and what is going to happen. Usually when we get such calls of other buildings that we have seen, there is — in 15 minutes, there is a targeting by a warning missile that is close to the building or in an empty apartment in the building. And that is what we were afraid of. In exactly 15 minutes, the first missile, warning missile, has been targeted next to the building. It was really traumatizing for all of us, running around on the stairs.
The building is out of 12 stories. And the first five floors were offices that host doctor’s offices and lawyer’s offices, a Falastinia lab. And the other six floors are residential apartments, and the last floor is the floor that hosts the Associated Press and, opposite to it, the Al Jazeera office. So, basically, this building is one of the most famous buildings in the Strip. All the residents know each other. The doctor’s offices are known. The lawyer’s offices there are known. No stranger comes in or out of that building.
And that’s why — I mean, the side of the story that says that there is Hamas intelligence that was in that building and that’s why they targeted the building has to do nothing with the reality of targeting the third building that hosts media offices in the Gaza Strip, after just a couple of days, al-Sharouk tower and al-Johara tower. The largest three buildings that host all the media offices in the Gaza Strip were completely destructed and brought to the ground. This was just the third one, but it had international media offices. And it was one of the safest places ever.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you all have moved in with Agence France-Presse, who has offered their offices for you to try to safely operate?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: We are operating from different places now, al-Shifa complex. Like, we weren’t able to take a lot of what we had in the office. I mean, very few cameras, one or two, very few of our equipment, we were able to save. Some of us were just on the stairs trying help civilians with their children to evacuate the building. It was really frightening. And it was really — we were really in a hurry, especially after the targeting of the reconnaissance warning missile that just targeted next to us. Another one was targeted like 15 minutes later. So, like in half an hour, we had two missiles, warning missiles. That itself, in like already in 30 minutes, almost all the building was evacuated, because we were very much frightened that it could be targeted or destructed in less than an hour. We asked the Israeli army spokesman for just 30 minutes. We asked him for 30 minutes when he called again. And we said we just need 30 minutes to get a little bit of our equipment from the offices. The residents needed to get some little necessities or essentials from their apartments. But he totally refused. And right after that, the targeting began, and the tower was all brought to the ground. So now we are just shattered here and there, trying to work from different locations with very little resources and little equipment that we have.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe more also what happened this morning just as you were driving in Gaza, the targeted attack on a car in front of you?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: Yes. I was going to Shifa complex, where I broadcast for Al Jazeera. And just 10 meters away, like 10 meters away, a car got targeted in front of us. And, like, honestly, if my driver hadn’t lowered the speed just like 30 seconds, because his phone rang so he had to lower the speed, just 30 seconds away, we would have been in that targeting, as well. We would have died in that targeting, as well.
So, like you would be going out to work, I leave my family. I say goodbye to them, and I go to work. And I know that I might actually get targeted or killed at any instant. That itself is something that is really, really traumatizing and heavy to carry around. I mean, I had to go on air after that, but I wasn’t even able to express what I have been through. I mean, this action might end any day, but the trauma that it has caused to each one of us is going to stay for so long with us.
AMY GOODMAN: Youmna, you have four children?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you tell them?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: I have four children. The youngest is two years and a half, and the oldest is 10 years.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you tell them?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: I tell them to forgive me. I tell them to forgive me if anything happens to me and I have to leave them, because this is my duty, and I have to — I have to deliver this message to the world. I know that there is nothing that forces me to go out and report in such times, but I have to do this, because if I don’t do it in these hard times, if I don’t deliver the message now, then when am I going to do that? The destruction around us is massive.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think the message is that was delivered to the media by this attack on the main media offices, Al Jazeera and AP, where you work, other media organizations, now Tony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, saying he was not told of any direct evidence of Hamas working in this building?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: Yes, and I’m sure that there isn’t going to be any. I mean, the Israeli army, when it has the proof for anything to back its story, it provides it, one, at once, instantly. I mean, it wants to back its stories. It has to. OK? But it’s not a coincidence that three towers hosting media offices would be completely destructed. This is no coincidence. I mean, this is just a deliberate targeting to the media voice in the Gaza Strip.
AMY GOODMAN: Youmna al-Sayed, I want to turn to video of you last week, when you were live on the air when Israel leveled another high-rise building in Gaza.
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: I’m sending a message to the world: Please, before you judge us, before you say that we are terrorists, I want you to make sure that you see the reality and the truth from all sides. Do not just take the Western media and go with it. Do not believe the Israeli messages and the Israeli side of the story without seeing our side. [aerial strike] As you can see now, the building has been brought down. It has been fully destructed. This is a tower. This is al-Sharouk tower, a 14-story building that has been brought to the ground, totally destructed by air raids. By the way, just for you to know, this tower is in a very densely populated.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Youmna al-Sayed reporting last week for Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip. Now the building she worked out of, Associated Press and Al Jazeera, has also been bombed by the Israeli military. For our radio listeners, what you can’t see, Youmna is wearing a helmet. When that explosion happened, she ducks down. Can you describe where you were then? Was that the building that has now been destroyed, or is that another building, Youmna?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: Yes, that is the building where we had our offices, the AP and Al Jazeera. And that is where I usually broadcast for Al Jazeera, from the rooftop of that building. That is the building that has been targeted. And the building that was targeted behind me in the video is the Sharouk building, which is a 14-story building that hosts three-quarters of the media offices in the Gaza Strip. It’s the second largest and hosts all the media, like most of the media offices in the Gaza Strip.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, this false report that was put out by the Israeli military that there was a ground assault taking place in Gaza, using the media to convey that message — actually, Associated Press did a breakdown of this and would not report it directly, but all the other press and now headlines in The New York Times and Washington Post about the media being tricked — what happened, Youmna?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: So, if you’re talking about — I’m sorry. You’re talking about the video, where I was?
AMY GOODMAN: The media being — the Israeli military putting out that they were doing a ground assault of Gaza, and the Western media reporting that?
YOUMNA AL-SAYED: Yes, yes. I think that that was — if you’re going to ask me as Youmna, while I’m just a reporter, I will tell you that this was a kind of a way for the Israeli army to play with the feelings and emotions of the citizens in the Gaza Strip, just to add more pressure on them. I mean, everyone was extremely traumatized when they heard that there is going to be a ground operation taking place, with — alongside with the air operation, which is already taking place and causing great crisis here in the Gaza Strip. And then, suddenly, there’s nothing, and they start saying that, “No, it’s not true. We are not going to carry on a land operation.” So, I think it was an attempt to actually — it was an attempt to actually try to bring down or traumatize the people of the Strip even more.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Youmna al-Sayed, I want to thank you for being with us, journalist in the Gaza Strip with the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, worked in the building that housed AP and Al Jazeera that was bombed by the Israeli military. Youmna has four children.
