By EDUARDO SILVEIRA NETTO NUNES*
Embracing the oppressor, the State of Israel, is an act of agreement with the materialization, in our time, of the most brutal consequences of racism
“It is a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness; between humanity and the law of the jungle” (Benjamin Netanyahu).
“Israel is imposing a complete siege on Gaza: no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel; all closed! We are fighting human animals” (Yoav Gallant, Israeli Minister of Defense).
“The entire (Palestinian) nation is responsible. The rhetoric that (Palestinian) civilians are not aware and are not involved is not correct. It is absolutely false…and we will fight until it breaks your spine” (Isaac Herzog, President of Israel).
“We all have a common goal: to erase the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth” (Nissim Vaturi, vice-president of the Knesset – National Assembly).
“South Africa seeks, through the denunciation of the Crime of Genocide against the State of Israel, to urgently protect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza…, including their right to exist as a group and to be protected against acts of genocide and the risk of committing genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, genocidal intent and complicity in genocide” (Republic of South Africa).
In Brazil, it is absolutely expected that racism will be associated with racism perpetrated against the black and indigenous population, because with a society forged in the enslavement of indigenous, African and Afro-descendant people, black people, with the end of enslavement racism was being constituted as a convenient instrument for “whites” to stigmatize black and indigenous peoples as incapable, uneducated, inept, uncivilized, barbaric. However, racism is also seriously expressed against other people, such as the Palestinian people!
In 2023 and 2024, part of the world, which still fights and believes in the emancipation and dignity of peoples, followed, indignant and appalled, the materialization of racism with the war of invasion perpetrated by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people who live in the Gaza Strip, an act that the Republic of South Africa denounced to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a “crime of genocide”!(1) This invasion adds to many other violations of the Palestinian territory subjected to successive violence suffered since the end of the 1948th century, but with greater intensity when the State of Israel was created in areas densely populated by Palestinians, in 750, and which resulted in , at the time, in the expulsion of around XNUMX thousand Palestinians forced into exodus, in the episode known as Nakba.
The fact that the South African Republic is the proponent of the action at the International Court of Justice is not irrelevant, especially considering that the country has been seriously affected by racism and apartheid policies throughout its history, which gives it special dignity and legitimacy to the accuser, even more so because the South African government recognizes that what imposed by the State of Israel, against the Palestinian people, in the Gaza Strip, is the contemporary expression of racism, of apartheid, colonialism, imperialism and Zionism that are synthesized in criminal actions classified as genocidal.
From this invasion of Palestinian territory, in 1948, by the then new State of Israel, there were numerous attempts and implementation of the Israeli advance into the areas in which Palestinians led their lives, reaching the point where, in a region of total original Palestinian rule, Today Israel has come to exercise direct and indirect control over practically the entire region, with the Palestinian people being responsible for small “islands” in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (see image below), on which around five million people live their lives ( two million in Gaza and three million in the West Bank).
In particular, in the Gaza Strip, the State of Israel has imposed, since 2007, very harsh restrictions on the population by building walls along the region's entire border with Israel, preventing Palestinians from entering and leaving freely, as well as the entry of supplies. and products necessary for everyday life, with this territory being considered the largest open-air prison for free people without any criminal convictions on the face of the earth, or the largest concentration camp in the world, or even the largest contemporary apartheid regime, this is because Palestinians live confined under direct and intense control of their lives by the State of Israel.
The genocidal war against the Palestinian people, which began in October 2023, perpetrated by the State of Israel, as denounced by South Africa, has so far resulted in the deaths of 37.202 Palestinian people, of which around 13.000 are children (35% ) and 10.000 women (30%); affecting 85 thousand people with bodily injuries of different intensities, including mutilations and amputations; in the forced migration of 1.700.000 Palestinian people who had to leave their home territories;(2) in the deaths of 125 journalists, 195 United Nations humanitarian workers and 340 people linked to medical assistance (doctors, social workers and nurses); in the production of around 19 thousand orphaned children, due to the death of their mothers.(3)
In addition to the serious threat to the life and physical integrity of Palestinian men and women, the warlike-genocidal actions of the State of Israel, according to complaints from South Africa and the UN, resulted in the imposition of conditions that made the lives of the people Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, practically unviable, because around 77% of the physical facilities intended for health (Hospitals, medical clinics, health care posts) were either seriously affected or destroyed; more than 68% of housing buildings (houses, buildings, villas); 68% of telecommunications infrastructure; 50% of all roads; 60% of educational facilities (and those that remain are unavailable for school use); 100% of Universities; 205 mosques or religious temples; 195 heritage sites or historic buildings; 13 libraries.(4)
Access to basic resources such as water, electricity, fuel, gas, food and medical supplies, all essential for daily life to be, at least, called dignified, due to the administrative characteristics of the Gaza Strip, imposed by Israel, are absolutely made unfeasible or being made viable in a criminally insufficient way.
Electricity supply is commonly zero; the water supply, due to the destroyed infrastructure and desalination plants and the impossibility of humanitarian aid entering, is reduced by between one and two liters per person per day to meet all their needs; agricultural production in the region, already difficult and insufficient to feed the population in “normal” times, with the Israeli invasion, became unfeasible, as well as the entry of food from external aid was restricted, generating a situation of insurmountable hunger and misery whereby , around 90% of Palestinians experience severe food insecurity, this is because only Israel is the one who authorizes or disallows the entry of food as it controls all access by land, sea and air in the Gaza Strip, and it has chosen not to grant authorizations in accordance with Palestinian needs.
Map of the destruction of the territory of the Gaza Strip, 58% of the buildings are damaged or destroyed by the actions of the State of Israel
The criminal actions perpetrated by the State of Israel against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip express a murderous military force, due to virulence, disproportionality and, mainly, the lack of distinction between civilian targets and supposed enemy targets. According to outdated data, by November 2023, Israel dropped 25 tons of explosives on the heads of the Palestinian people, corresponding to two atomic bombs, part of the bombs remotely guided by artificial intelligence, on fixed targets, and the other endless part of targetless bombs. right, and in both cases they reached densely populated regions, destroying entire neighborhoods, essential infrastructure and killing thousands of people.
South Africa summarized the motivations to denounce the State of Israel for genocide, calling for its condemnation for the atrocities committed, as well as for it to immediately stop actions against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. These were the motivations:
“The State of Israel: (i) participates in the murder of Palestinians in Gaza (including Palestinian children) in large numbers; (ii) is causing serious physical and mental harm to Palestinians in Gaza, including Palestinian children; (iii) is imposing living conditions on them designed to bring about their destruction as a group.
These conditions include: (a) expulsion from homes and massive displacement, along with large-scale destruction of homes and residential areas; (b) deprivation of adequate access to food and water; (c) deprivation of access to adequate medical care; (d) deprivation of access to adequate housing, clothing, hygiene and sanitation; (e) the destruction of the lives of the Palestinian people in Gaza; and (f) imposition of measures designed to prevent births to Palestinians.”
The defense of the Palestinian people is urgent! Embracing the oppressor, the State of Israel, at this moment is an act of agreement with the materialization, in our time, of the most brutal consequences of racism, namely, the aparthied, the mass extermination of people and genocide, denounces South Africa. What is your side in this story?
*Eduardo Silveira Netto Nunes is a professor of history at the Faculty of Education of the Federal University of Acre (UFAC).
References
(1) Complaint filed by the Republic of South Africa at the International Court of Justice, accusing the State of Israel of the alleged crime of genocide. Original in English: https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf#page=72
Portuguese version: https://www.aacademica.org/edunettonunes/17
(2) Data from the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, of the United Nations, or OCHA, which periodically publishes, in English, reports on the situation of Human Rights and their violation, in Palestine, especially in the Strip of Gaza. Check the institution's website at: https://www.ochaopt.org/
(3) Data from the Agency for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, of the United Nations (UN Women). Check the institution's website at: https://www.unwomen.org/es
(4) Data from the “Report on the situation of Human Rights in Palestine (A/HRC/55/73, of 25/03/2024)”, presented to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Check the institution's website at: https://www.ohchr.org/es/
5. Report from Brasil de Fato on the situation of violence perpetrated by Israel between October 2023 and May 2024. “X-ray of the massacre: see in maps and graphs how Israel is destroying the Gaza Strip”, Brasil de Fato | São Paulo (SP), May 15, 2024. https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/05/15/raio-x-do-massacre-veja-em-mapas-e-graficos-como-israel-esta-destruindo-a-faixa-de-gaza
6. Series of articles on “The genocide in Gaza”, which can be found in this article: “The genocide in Gaza: a massive ongoing ethnic cleansing operation”. Michelle Ventura, Helena Othman, Rafael Oliveira and Bárbara Caramuru. December 15, 2023. https://diplomatique.org.br/genocídio-gaza-limpeza-etnica-em-curso/
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