'Israel Has Long Been A Rogue State'

Extracts from this interview with the lecturer, media studies, University of Guelph-Humber, Toronto appeared in print

Is Israel becoming a rogue state and is the international community totally powerless to rein it in?

Israel has long been a rogue state in that for decades it has violated international law in countless ways. Examples of that include, to name only a few: its illegal occupation and settlement of Palestinian territories; its refusal to allow Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes in accord with UN Resolution 194; its 7 year old siege of Gaza, which has been characterized as illegal by such groups as the Red Cross and Amnesty International as well as by UN officials like Desmond Tutu, Navi Pillay, and Richard Falk. 

Furthermore, Israel can also be considered a rogue state in view of its frequent invasions of neighbouring countries and its frequent mass murders of civilians, which we have seen in such cases as 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, 2012’s Operation Pillar of Defence, 2008-09’s Operation Cast Lead, the 2006 assault on Lebanon, the Sabra and Shatila massacre and many more besides all the way back to the 1947-48 Nakba upon which Israel was founded. 

Other governments certainly have the capacity to help rein in Israel. The US of course provides $3 billion in annual aid to Israel and protects it at the UN. Other Western states, notably France, Britain, and Canada, offer Israel multiple forms of important economic, political, military, and ideological support. The Indian government has also been a useful ally for Israel. Simply by ceasing these activities, the governments of any of these countries could help bring Israel under control but they have no interest in doing so. Quite the contrary, in fact.

Is the Israel’s ongoing military action on Gaza justified? What is the motive behind it?

Israel’s ongoing military action against Gaza is completely unjustified. Sixty-three people were slaughtered in Shejaiya. Israel is deliberately killing civilians, including children, as well as purposely attacking schools and medical facilities including a centre for the disabled and hospitals that it knows do not contain weapons. Even if they were housing weapons, it is only legal to fire at them under a very narrow set of circumstances that do not exist in these cases. Moreover, Israel has inflicted collective punishment on the Gaza, depriving 900,000 people of safe drinking water, undermining the treatment of sewage and the provision of electricity. All of these are war crimes. 

The attack was motivated by a short term goal and a broader goal. The Israeli leadership’s short-term goal was to undermine the Palestinian unity government that was agreed to in April. Hamas was a part of that government and the Israeli regime decided that it could not countenance that. But the current attack is also part of Israel’s longer-term concern with maintaining a majority Jewish population in all of historic Palestine as well as effective control over as much of that territory and its resources as it is able to do without surrendering that demographic advantage. Part of Israel’s strategy, it seems, is to make life as miserable as possible for Palestinians so that they will either leave the area or be ground into submitting to second-class status. Fortunately, there’s no reason to think either of these things will happen.

Can it go on killing innocent civilians in the name of dealing with Hamas militants?

Israel cannot go on killing Gaza civilians from a legal or moral perspective since the attacks have no legitimacy in either sense and never have. Remember, Israel is considered an occupying power with regard to Gaza. That means Israel has a responsibility to ensure the well-being of the population under its control but it is doing exactly the opposite. It also means Palestinians have a right to fight for their liberation, a right which includes recourse to armed struggle.

Having said that, Israel can go on killing civilians in that there is currently no effective mechanism for stopping them. Yet if Israel continues committing these atrocities, it will merely give strength to the Palestinian resistance. Israel’s brutality is likely to help build the international movement in solidarity with Palestinians—particularly those heeding their call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. These forces, the Palestinian resistance and its global allies, are much more likely to compel Israel to follow international law than the rulers of powerful states allied with Israel.

Why has the liberal Israeli/Jewish voice been so silent during this operation of Tel Aviv? Has that voice been lost?

Since I am neither Jewish nor Israeli I may not be the best person to assess this. It seems to me that at moments of crisis Israel’s peace movement has been either too small to be effective or has largely acceded to the state’s position. This is not unique to Israel. In other settler-colonial societies such as Canada and the United States, too much of the dominant sector of society is either a combination of too docile and propagandized to express solidarity with oppressed indigenous peoples or is aware that it benefits from that oppression and thus has no interest in standing with the colonized. However, I would point out that there has indeed been protest within Israel during Protective Edge though the demonstrators were attacked by right wing thugs. And in Israel you do have groups doing brave ongoing work such as Anarchists Against the Wall. Similarly, around the world many Jewish organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace resist what Israel does in their name. As should go without saying, not all Jewish people are complicit in Israel’s crimes and many have been making important contributions to the Palestinian struggle for a long time.