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By Ramzy Baroud
The next textual content tells the entire story of what pro-Palestinian communities all over the world are combating for, and what pro-Israelis are combating in opposition to: “We’re delighted to report that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has eliminated a show of paintings designed by kids from Gaza.”
That was the summary of a information report printed on the homepage of the pro-Israel group, UK Attorneys for Israel (UKLFI). The group is credited for being the get together that managed to efficiently persuade the administration of a hospital in West London to take down just a few items of paintings created by refugee kids from Gaza.
Explaining the logic behind their relentless marketing campaign to take away the kids’s artwork, UKLFI stated that “Jewish sufferers” within the hospital “felt weak and victimized by the show”. The few items of paintings had been these of the Dome of the Rock in occupied East Jerusalem, the Palestinian flag and different symbols that ought to hardly victimize anybody.
The UKLFI article was later edited, with the offensive abstract eliminated, though it’s nonetheless accessible by way of social media.
As ridiculous as this story sounds, it’s, the truth is, the very essence of the anti-Palestinian marketing campaign launched by Israel and its allies worldwide. Whereas Palestinians are combating for primary human rights, freedom and sovereignty as enshrined in worldwide regulation, the pro-Israel camp is combating for a complete and full erasure of every little thing Palestinian.
Some name this cultural genocide or ethnocide. Whereas Palestinians have been accustomed to this Israeli follow in Palestine for the reason that very inception of the state of Israel, the boundaries of the conflict have been expanded to succeed in anyplace on the earth, particularly within the western hemisphere.
The inhumanity of UKLFI and their allies is sort of palpable, however the group can’t be the one get together deserving blame. These legal professionals are however a continuation of an Israeli colonial tradition that sees the very existence of a Palestinian individuals with a political discourse, together with kids refugees’ artwork, as an ‘existential menace’ to Israel.
The connection between the very existence of a rustic and kids’s artwork could seem absurd – and it’s – but it surely has its personal, albeit unusual, logic: so long as these refugee kids acknowledge themselves as Palestinian, so long as they are going to proceed to depend as half of a bigger entire, the Palestinian individuals. This self-awareness, and the popularity by others – for instance, sufferers and workers at a London hospital – of this collective Palestinian identification, makes it tough, the truth is, inconceivable, for Israel to win.
For Palestinians and Israelis, victory means two solely various things, which can’t be consolidated. For Palestinians, victory means freedom for the Palestinian individuals and equality for all. For Israel, victory can solely be achieved via the erasure of Palestinians – geographically, traditionally, culturally and in each means that could possibly be a part of a individuals’s identification.
Sadly, the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is now an energetic participant on this tragic erasure of the Palestinians, the identical means that Virgin Airways bowed to stress in 2018 when it agreed to take away “Palestinian-inspired couscous” off its menu. On the time, this story appeared as if it was an odd episode within the so-called ‘Palestinian-Israeli battle’, although, in actuality, the story represented the very core of this ‘battle’.
For Israel, the conflict in Palestine revolved round three primary duties: buying land; erasing the individuals and rewriting historical past.
The primary job has been largely achieved via a means of ethnic cleaning and unhinged colonization of Palestine since 1947-48. The present right-wing extremist authorities of Benjamin Netanyahu is simply hoping to finalize this course of.
The second job includes greater than ethnic cleaning, as a result of even the mere consciousness of Palestinians, wherever they’re, of their collective identification, constitutes an issue. Thus, the energetic means of cultural genocide.
Although Israel has succeeded in rewriting historical past for a few years, that job is now being challenged, due to the tenacity of Palestinians and their allies, and the facility of social and digital media.
Palestinians are arguably the best beneficiary of the rise of digital media. The latter has contributed to the decentralization of political and even historic narratives. For many years, the favored understanding of what constitutes ‘Israel’ and ‘Palestine’ in mainstream creativeness was largely managed via a particular Israeli-sanctioned narrative. Those that deviated from this narrative had been attacked and marginalized, and nearly at all times accused of ‘antisemitism’. Whereas these ways are nonetheless unleashed at critics of Israel, the result is not assured.
For instance, a single tweet exposing the ‘delight’ of UKLFI has acquired over 2 million views on Twitter. Tens of millions of outraged Brits and social media customers all over the world have turned what was meant to be a neighborhood story into one of the mentioned subjects, worldwide, on Palestine and Israel. Expectedly, not many social media customers took half within the ‘delight’ of the UKLFI, thus forcing them to reword their authentic article. Extra importantly, tens of millions of individuals have, in a single day, been launched to a complete new matter on Palestine and Israel: that of cultural erasure. The ‘victory’ has became an entire embarrassment, not to mention defeat.
Because of the rising reputation of the Palestinian trigger and the affect of social media, preliminary Israeli victories nearly at all times backfire. A more moderen instance is the dismissal and the short reinstatement of the previous Director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth.
In January, Roth’s fellowship at Harvard College’s Kennedy College was revoked as a result of current HRW report that defines Israel as an apartheid regime. A significant marketing campaign, which was began by small different media organizations, resulted within the reinstatement of Roth inside days. This, and different circumstances, demonstrates that criticizing Israel is not a career-ender, as was typically the case up to now.
Israel continues to make use of previous ways to regulate the dialog on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It’s failing as a result of these conventional ways can not work in a contemporary world during which entry to info is decentralized, and the place no quantity of censorship can management the dialog.
For Palestinians, this new actuality is a chance to widen their circle of help all over the world. For Israel, the mission is a precarious one, particularly when preliminary victories might, in hours, turn into utter defeats.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He’s the writer of six books. His newest ebook, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Imaginative and prescient for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Communicate out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Analysis Fellow on the Heart for Islam and World Affairs (CIGA). His web site is www.ramzybaroud.web
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