March 5, 2010
by Moammar Mashni - The Age - 5 March 2010
Downtrodden, denied life’s basics and forever vilified is a Gazan’s lot.
AS THE son of a Palestinian refugee expelled from his native homeland, there are few things I cherish more than my gift of freedom. However, being born and bred in Australia has not shielded me from being tagged with a label that is the unfortunate lot of all first-generation Palestinians. To some, we simply do not exist, and when we do, we are terrorists, animals or sub-human.
Such deliberate misrepresentations and stereotypes are constantly propagated, but to read unsubstantiated claims about Palestinians in a serious newspaper (Julie Szego, Comment, 3/3) was highly offensive.
Over the years, Palestinians have been accused of terrible things. The Israelis claim that we use our children as human shields. Despite propagating this lie repeatedly, Israel has never provided conclusive proof of it. Nonetheless, the lie has come to be accepted as ”truth”.
Yet contrary to such misconceptions, Amnesty International says in its report ”Israel/Gaza Operation ‘Cast Lead’: 22 days of death and destruction” that it was Israeli soldiers who used Palestinians as human shields.
Amnesty’s conclusion was unambiguous. It “did not find evidence that Hamas or other Palestinian groups violated the laws of war to the extent repeatedly alleged by Israel … In particular, it found no evidence that Hamas or other fighters directed the movement of civilians to shield military objectives from attacks.” But it did find ”that Israeli forces on several occasions during Operation ‘Cast Lead’ forced Palestinian civilians to serve as ‘human shields’.”
Human Rights Watch, the UN and the internationally respected jurist Justice Richard Goldstone delivered similar findings.
Goldstone, a South African Jew and ardent Zionist, has been savagely attacked by Israel and its lobbyists since his report on violations by both Hamas and Israel was released.
The 1.5 million Palestinians hermetically sealed into the tiny Gaza enclave have been deprived of almost every basic provision for nearly four years because they elected politicians not to the world’s liking, yet Hamas was democratically elected in free and fair elections.
Whatever grievances the world has with the Hamas leadership, the civilian population ought not to be punished for exercising its right to vote.
It does not mean that we should condone violence or terrorism carried out by Hamas militants, but neither should we condone the violence and acts of terror perpetrated by Israel.
In 1997, then Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sanctioned the failed assassination attempt on Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Jordan, and were it not for Meshaal’s bodyguard, the assassins would have escaped. The ensuing diplomatic furore resulted in Netanyahu being forced to hand over the antidote that saved Meshaal from the poison injected by two Mossad agents travelling on fake Canadian passports.
Now Netanyahu is back as Israel’s Prime Minister, and again under his watch Israel is strongly suspected of carrying out an execution in a foreign country with the assassins fraudulently using the passports of various countries around the globe, including Australia.
While Israel blithely propagates falsehoods that stigmatise all Palestinians, it sanctions murder and allows the identities of its own and foreign citizens to be dangerously compromised.
We should feel reassured that our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, a staunch ally of Israel, said that he would ”not be silent on the matter” of the three fraudulently used Australian passports and identities. That is to be expected. But equally, Rudd should speak out in support of the UN-backed Goldstone report that seeks accountability for the shocking actions during Israel’s war on Gaza in January last year.
Instead, Australia voted once in the UN against a war crimes investigation and, since the passport revelations, it abstained – all the while maintaining its opposition to the Goldstone report. Such a lame response should cause us to wonder if Australia will really hold Israel to account.
International law is there to safeguard all of the citizens of the world. Its strength is that it is universal: it knows no borders, religion, colour or creed – at least that’s what it was intended for.
As long as countries such as Australia allow Israel a free hand to do what it wants without any regard for international law, people everywhere will suddenly find our world a much more threatening place in which to live.
As a Palestinian still tagged with ugly labels, that is not an experience I would wish on anyone.
Moammar Mashni is a spokesman for Australians for Palestine.
River to SeaDowntrodden, denied life’s basics and forever vilified is a Gazan’s lot.
AS THE son of a Palestinian refugee expelled from his native homeland, there are few things I cherish more than my gift of freedom. However, being born and bred in Australia has not shielded me from being tagged with a label that is the unfortunate lot of all first-generation Palestinians. To some, we simply do not exist, and when we do, we are terrorists, animals or sub-human.
Such deliberate misrepresentations and stereotypes are constantly propagated, but to read unsubstantiated claims about Palestinians in a serious newspaper (Julie Szego, Comment, 3/3) was highly offensive.
Over the years, Palestinians have been accused of terrible things. The Israelis claim that we use our children as human shields. Despite propagating this lie repeatedly, Israel has never provided conclusive proof of it. Nonetheless, the lie has come to be accepted as ”truth”.
Yet contrary to such misconceptions, Amnesty International says in its report ”Israel/Gaza Operation ‘Cast Lead’: 22 days of death and destruction” that it was Israeli soldiers who used Palestinians as human shields.
Amnesty’s conclusion was unambiguous. It “did not find evidence that Hamas or other Palestinian groups violated the laws of war to the extent repeatedly alleged by Israel … In particular, it found no evidence that Hamas or other fighters directed the movement of civilians to shield military objectives from attacks.” But it did find ”that Israeli forces on several occasions during Operation ‘Cast Lead’ forced Palestinian civilians to serve as ‘human shields’.”
Human Rights Watch, the UN and the internationally respected jurist Justice Richard Goldstone delivered similar findings.
Goldstone, a South African Jew and ardent Zionist, has been savagely attacked by Israel and its lobbyists since his report on violations by both Hamas and Israel was released.
The 1.5 million Palestinians hermetically sealed into the tiny Gaza enclave have been deprived of almost every basic provision for nearly four years because they elected politicians not to the world’s liking, yet Hamas was democratically elected in free and fair elections.
Whatever grievances the world has with the Hamas leadership, the civilian population ought not to be punished for exercising its right to vote.
It does not mean that we should condone violence or terrorism carried out by Hamas militants, but neither should we condone the violence and acts of terror perpetrated by Israel.
Now Netanyahu is back as Israel’s Prime Minister, and again under his watch Israel is strongly suspected of carrying out an execution in a foreign country with the assassins fraudulently using the passports of various countries around the globe, including Australia.
While Israel blithely propagates falsehoods that stigmatise all Palestinians, it sanctions murder and allows the identities of its own and foreign citizens to be dangerously compromised.
We should feel reassured that our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, a staunch ally of Israel, said that he would ”not be silent on the matter” of the three fraudulently used Australian passports and identities. That is to be expected. But equally, Rudd should speak out in support of the UN-backed Goldstone report that seeks accountability for the shocking actions during Israel’s war on Gaza in January last year.
Instead, Australia voted once in the UN against a war crimes investigation and, since the passport revelations, it abstained – all the while maintaining its opposition to the Goldstone report. Such a lame response should cause us to wonder if Australia will really hold Israel to account.
International law is there to safeguard all of the citizens of the world. Its strength is that it is universal: it knows no borders, religion, colour or creed – at least that’s what it was intended for.
As long as countries such as Australia allow Israel a free hand to do what it wants without any regard for international law, people everywhere will suddenly find our world a much more threatening place in which to live.
As a Palestinian still tagged with ugly labels, that is not an experience I would wish on anyone.
Moammar Mashni is a spokesman for Australians for Palestine.
Uprooted Palestinian
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