Israel doesn’t even deny it is carrying out ethnic cleansing. It’s our duty to resist
Perhaps the images of thousands of Palestinian refugees marching through the ruins accompanied by tanks were reminiscent of scenes from the Holocaust. It is also possible that the ethnic cleansing vision is reminiscent of the “original sin” of the Nakba, which haunts Jewish society in Israel. After all, there is a difference between denying the Nakba, justifying it, or contending that the Jews had no choice, and seeing it take place in front of your eyes and in front of the cameras. ■ Now is the time for the establishment of the Israeli Committee Against Ethnic Cleansing and War Crimes.
By Yael Berda and Meron Rapoport • Translated by Sol Salbe
Israel has been carrying out ethnic cleansing in the northern Gaza Strip. It has used starvation, denied health services, bombing, and destroying homes and schools where displaced persons have found shelter. In this way Israel has forced the vast majority of residents of Jabaliya refugee camp, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia to leave their homes, and the state has no intention of allowing them to return.
In contrast to the majority of the Israeli population disregard for the war crimes committed by the state since the beginning of the war, the response to ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza has been different. Over the past month, prominent voices on the Jewish Centre-Left, from former deputy head of the National Security Council Eran Etzion to Jewish Studies scholar Tomer Persico, and many others have openly called on soldiers to refuse to follow ethnic cleansing orders. Senior jurists, including some who advised Israel’s defence team against the accusation of genocide in The Hague, signed a letter against ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, expulsion and harm to civilians.
What is the explanation to the difference between the response to the ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza and the response (which never happened) to Israel’s war crimes, which in the eyes of the International Court of Justice in The Hague already hold a reasonable probability of being a genocide? Is it the officious self-composure? Is it the fact that ethnic cleansing is clearly a preconceived step as a result of the Generals’ Plan? Perhaps it is the timing — the recognition that the army has ostensibly achieved its objectives in Gaza, and therefore the operation in Jabaliya and its environs has no military objective. Perhaps it is the opposition of most of the abductees’ families to the continuation of the war, and the presumption that military pressure will not lead to the release of their loved ones.
Perhaps the images of thousands of refugees marching through the ruins accompanied by tanks were reminiscent of scenes from the Holocaust. It is also possible that the ethnic cleansing vision is reminiscent of the “original sin” of the Nakba, which haunts Jewish society in Israel. After all, there is a difference between denying the Nakba, justifying it, or contending that the Jews had no choice, and seeing it take place in front of your eyes and in front of the cameras.
But maybe the explanation is simpler: Israel doesn’t even bother to deny that it is deliberately starving the residents of these areas. Brigadier-General Elad Goren, whose title is Head of the Civilian-Humanitarian Effort in the Gaza Strip in the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, was asked by the Associated Press whether the military is preventing aid from entering northern Gaza. Most residents have left Jabaliya, he said and those who remain have “enough assistance” with the supplies they had received earlier. In Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, he said, there are no people. There are no people, and the chief official of the “humanitarian effort” in the IDF is actually overseeing starvation and expulsion. Brig Gen Itzik Cohen, commander of Division 162 operating in northern Gaza, explained to reporters: “There will be no return of anyone to the northern area… We received very clear orders. My mission is to create a cleansing of the region.”
The military repeatedly denies that it has adopted the Generals’ Plan, which calls for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza City and its environs under the threat of starvation and war, but what is actually happening there appears to be worse. The ethnic cleansing in the north is likely the first step toward cleansing Gaza City of the 400,000 Palestinians still living there. The worst is yet to come.
Refusal to serve is a very powerful tool, but now there are prominent voices on the Jewish Centre-Left are openly calling on soldiers to refuse to follow ethnic cleansing orders
The moral critique of ethnic cleansing and calls for soldiers to refuse to take part in it, could be an important turning point in the attitude of parts of the Jewish Centre-Left to what is happening in Gaza. But in order for the protest against ethnic cleansing not to remain forlorn in a vacuum, it is important to create a new entity that would be able to back up this refusal and give it context and political strength.
Now is the time for the establishment of the Israeli Committee Against Ethnic Cleansing and War Crimes. It is important to ensure that a clear strong voice of Israelis is heard against the crimes committed in our name and using us. It is important to give the different voices who spoke out against these crimes in Gaza the feeling that they are not alone. Such a committee would be an organisation that is reminiscent of the anti-fascist fronts of yesteryear. But what Israel is doing today in Gaza is much worse than fascism. It’s more like a war of annihilation.
The dismissal of Yoav Gallant, although not directly related to the ethnic cleansing of which he was one of the instigators, but to his position in favour of a hostage deal and some kind of ceasefire, may strengthen this refusal front. Refusal was and remains the most powerful tool in the face of the current government’s plans for an interminable war. Especially now, following Donald Trump’s election victory which may remove the obstacles Netanyahu and his associates hitherto faced in completing the ethnic cleansing in Gaza City.
Following Gallant’s dismissal, opposition to ethnic cleansing may join forces with others trying to put an end to this accursed war. But it is important to highlight the moral essence of the message against a crime that threatens first of all the Palestinian presence in this land, but over time, also the Jewish presence here.
Prof Yael Berda, a jurist and sociologist, a member of the Hebrew University faculty, wrote the book The Bureaucracy of the Occupation. Meron Rappaport is a journalist, political activist and editor of Local Call [Sikha Mekomit.]
