By Seevali Abeysekera*
LONDON | 20 January 2024 (IDN) —The destruction of Gaza by the modern-day equivalent of a medieval killing machine called the IDF has not only highlighted the absolute barbarity and bloodlust of the state of Israel, but also exposed the grotesque values of its sycophantic acolytes in the West and other parts of the globe.
That Israel has finally shown the world the true face of Zionism should have come as no surprise to anyone willing and able to understand the fundamentals of Zionism through an impartial and objective lens. All the evidence that any impartial, objective observer required to assess the true face of Zionism was already available long before HAMAS opened the gates of hell on 7 October 2023.
An impartial, objective observer who studied the history of Israel would have concluded that its standard modus operandi has always been to hoodwink and persuade the world that it was a liberal secular democracy instead of the settler colonial apartheid racist nation which has systematically carried out a policy of ethnic cleansing since its creation in 1948.
This masquerade was so convincing that the majority of the supposedly civilized and enlightened world accepted, in its entirety, the narrative Israel presented since 1948. The narrative is that of a liberal secular democracy whose citizens believe in the same core values that all other secular democracies have enshrined as part of their core society values – the rule of law, equality, and equal justice for all its citizens.
The Judeo-Christian world. . .
The Judeo-Christian world had convinced itself that Zionist Israel was no different to them in terms of believing in secular, multicultural values and the acceptance of a universal legal system where all citizens were deemed equal.
The Judeo-Christian West refused to accept the prima-facie evidence that was obvious where a country which defined itself as a homeland only for a particular ethno-religious group was, in its very definition, racist!
The Judeo-Christian West refused to accept, as racist, the prima facie evidence which showed that Israel had multiple levels of citizenship and rights for its citizens based on their ethnicity or religion.
The Judeo-Christian West refused to accept as racist the prima-facie evidence where Israel had a legal system which entitled any Jew, born anywhere in the world, to automatic citizenship and rights to be in Israel and yet deprived the indigenous Palestinians, both citizenship rights and any rights of return to those exiled since 1948 or 1967 due to the first and second Nakba’s.
The Judeo-Christian West refused to accept, as ethnic cleansing, the prima facie evidence that showed the mass expulsion or transfer of the Palestinian population out of Israel in order to accommodate white Jewish settlers from America and Europe.
Or perhaps the Judeo-Christian West did accept all of the above but gave Israel special dispensation to carry out its policy of ethnic cleansing as ”recompense” for the evil that was the Holocaust?
Or perhaps the Judeo-Christian West did know all of the above and allowed it to happen because here was the last bastion of settler colonialism, which the white Judeo-Christian West had been forced to give up as a result of the end of empire?
Whilst Israel has always been an apartheid racist state masquerading as a secular democracy, the conceptual, racial, and special infrastructure of systemic ethnic cleaning was formulated during the decades following the Oslo peace process. This was required to provide the facade of a potential two-state solution and was done with the direct support of America, Great Britain, and the EU.
Since 7 October 2023, however, there is no need for the facade of a two-state solution, and Israel has embarked on a near textbook case of ethnic cleansing and genocide, designed to cleanse or eliminate a population of 2.3 million in Gaza, with the same process now unfolding in the West Bank.
As described in my previous piece, the contrast between European settler colonial genocides of the previous centuries and Gaza is the technology that live-streams the unfolding horrors directly to our living rooms, PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Ethnic cleansing and genocide
The ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza continues unabated as it is protected by the diplomatic cover provided by the West. Taeli narrative that Palestinians are” human animals” who deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth.
Whether this is his cover is enhanced by the unquestioned support from Western mainstream media who are eager to promote the Isrdue to the ownership of the media organisations controlling the narrative or purely down to the anti-Palestinian racism that appears to have metastasized amongst vast swathes of the Western media remains to be seen.
America, Great Britain and the EU will continue to protect Israel, providing direct and indirect diplomatic, political, military intelligence and media support, ensuring that Israel remains above international law. This will continue until Israel decides to either retreat from Gaza due to losses in manpower and machinery, make Gaza uninhabitable for human life, or ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians by forcing them to flee as refugees to Egypt or drown in the waters off Gaza.
In addition to the criminal complicity of the West, the Arab nations and India, too, have” blood on their hands” for their indifference to the slaughter of the Palestinians and even support for Israel, which has been grotesque.
The near obliteration of Gaza is systematic and designed to deliberately turn it into an almost uninhabitable landscape where Palestinians would either be reluctant to return or be physically prohibited from returning to what are the ruins of their homes.
This Israeli strategy of the destruction of Gaza is called the ”Dahiya Doctrine”, which encompasses the complete and total destruction of the civilian infrastructure deemed to be hostile as a measure calculated to pressure enemy combatants and endorses the employment of “disproportionate overwhelming force” (compared to the amount of force used by the enemy) to secure that end.
The “Dahiya Doctrine” was named after a suburb of Beirut, which in 2006 was obliterated by Israel in response to Hezbollah inflicting heavy losses on the IDF during Israel’s invasion of Southern Lebanon.
The Dahiya Doctrine is explained as one where if Israel cannot defeat an enemy on the battlefield, then those civilian areas from where the enemy combatants come should be destroyed using overwhelming force in order to inflict enormous civilian casualties and the near destruction of civilian infrastructure. This is done to remind the enemy combatants that their families will pay the ultimate price.
This strategy was referred to as” collective punishment” when used by the Nazis during World War 2, but the term is not used today as that will imply, quite rightly, in my opinion, that Israel’s modus operandi is either similar to or the same as that as used by the 3rd Reich.
Israeli academics, diplomats, politicians, and commentators are now very candid and open in their demand for the IDF to ethnically cleanse Gaza of all Palestinians and, once that is accomplished, to rebuild Gaza as an integral part of Israel with an entirely Jewish population.
If that is not a textbook definition of ethnic cleansing, what is?
*Seevali Abeysekera is a retired UK businessman who scribes a blog on current affairs and reflections and thoughts on his life journey. seevaliabeysekera.wordpress.com [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: The translated edition of “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. Source: Morocco World News
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