Gaza and the State Terrorism

Nowadays Gaza is in the forefront of the international media. This is not new, as its foundation dates back 4.000 years ago, and throughout its long history it has experienced different moments, sometimes flourishing and sometimes been completely destroyed. But like a phoenix bird, it rises from its ashes repeatedly, to the pride of its inhabitants and the concern of its enemies. Gaza has seen from pharaohs to conquerors of different colors and believes, from Hebrew patriots such as the famous Samson, who the Bible tells us fell in love with a traitorous Philistine called Dalila from Gaza and ended up giving his life to kill the enemies of his people. It was also visited by the equally famous Napoleon, who praised the remarkable culture of the city at that time. But since the creation of the state of Israel, Gaza has gone from being the liberal seaside resort of the Arab well-to-do classes and their British "protectors" to be transformed into the world largest prison by the will of its now Hebrew "protectors".

I had the honor of working in Gaza as a White Helmet volunteer in 1997, continuing the work of other Argentine professionals who had carry out an urban survey and diagnosis that allowed us to formulate the first after Intifada city's zoning plan and urban code. At that time, Arafat had been invited by Israel as a counterpart to participate the peace process resulting from the Oslo agreement. The Gaza plan, which was approved in an executive way in 9 months, led to the extension of the international cooperation project to the other main cities of the strip: Khan Younis and Rafah. The enthusiasm of the palestinian was so great that the project also extended to the West Bank, where I also worked on the urban development plan of Bethlehem, Beit Jalah and Beit Sahour. This happened within the framework of a peace initiative called "Bethlehem 2000. The possibility of creating a Palestinian state, at that time, was very close, even despite the obvious difficulties of territorial division and fragmentation of the nascent state. I returned to Palestine in 2004/5 to work with UNRWA on a housing project to rehouse refugees whose homes had been demolished by Israel's during its withdrawal from the Strip. I was in Gaza when the Palestinian people elected Hamas as the political party representing them in their historic struggle for freedom and autonomy. I witnessed the rise of Hamas as an organization primarily concerned with disciplining the civilian population and taking full control of the Gaza strip. Confusing kidnappings and a lot of intelligence activity already at that time made the population very skeptical of the true intentions of this organization to defend their rights because of their international links, including Israeli extremists. I came back again in 2018 with a solid waste project and I definitely found a population suffering from a tyrannical government with no will to find the peace and freedom their people expected. In addition, living conditions were extremelly harsh. Also I witness an Israeli population fed up with violence and genuinely desirous of a just solution with its neighbors, although of course, with full accees to their rights as human beings, including decent houses, jobs, food and security.

The recent events of public knowledge in which terrorist groups carried out an unprecedented operation lead me to different feelings and ideas. On the one hand, having crossed the border of Erez and Rafah many times in my life and having seen the constant israelian military patrolling over the sea, I find it hard to believe that such an operation could have been carried out without the complicity of the Israeli army high command. On the other hand, knowing very well the thinking of people who sympathize with Israel and its constant territorial expansion on land internationally agreed to serve as Palestine homeland, to restore its historical borders reached by the legendary King David that include also other neighbours countries, I am doubtfull about what is actually going on.

Considering that normally in any country terrorism is fighted with inteligence services, in this case, this important governmental entities are completely absents. We see only military people with a rethoric of "war", when actually we have an already powerfull state supported by the most powerfull country on earth, moving troops to fights against a terrorist entity who nobody really knows who they are, even the palestinians. Such madness invites to think that this operation is nothing more than the perfect excuse to get rid of a hated neighbor with the approval of the international community. The same international community that moved by the horrors of the second world war agree to recognize the state of Israel as a safe place to live, but historically failing to also recognize the right of the palestinians to have also a State to protect them. Even, the demarcation of the borders of such state have been systematically violated by Israel, making it the only responsible of the security and human rights fulfillment for all people living in that land, their own israelian citizens but also the palestinian people, until their state is finally created. This situation in which a contested government with a lot of criticism by his own citizens do not react to a groups that historically control it militarily and respond just erasing all possible evidences to investigate what actually happens, killing everyone, palestinians and israelian as well, should make us at least to reflect that something is wrong in the narrative that we hear. Even for those israelies who lost relatives or they are captives right now, the behaviour of his own government showing not interest at all in save civilian lives start to be suspicious as well.

Many Palestinian acquaintances, colleagues and friends with whom I have befriended during my successive visits have lost relatives, especially sons and daughters, and they tell me that when the extravagant and unrealist request to displace 2 million people south happened, they obey the order, being surprise of suffering the bombardement of exactly those areas where they were requested to move. This, of course, contribute to stop believing that there is a serious plan to combat terrorism, but that what we are really seeing is simply state terrorism. That same terrorism that in so many countries has been harshly judged by serious civil institutions in the countries where these atrocities happened, when possible or by International Criminal Courts.

Victims of terrorism hurt, no matter which side of the border they are on. It is natural that people, according to their emotions and reasoning, grieve more for some than for others and seek justice equally. But what is completely unaceptable is to naturalize revenge as a fair way to resolve conflicts. We all have an obligation to act with fairness and seriousness overcoming simplistic nationalistic or religious arguments that transform this tragedy of humanity into a narrative of historical reparation in which there are "good" people on one side and "bad" people, or just using the same racist terminology "animals" on the other, when in fact, today in all countries even the rights of all kind of animals are protected. The rethoric of war hide the coward fact of an army that being unable to protect his own people of a more that suspicious attack, unable to investigate anything and unveil a plan to prosecute all those behind such attacks, choose to kill innocent people claiming military victory. Unfortunately, such nonsense is believed by many people of good faith who are passionate about believing everything that a propaganda shows them. People who promote racist propaganda, who victimize themselves again and again by hiding behind a mask of pacifists willing "two state solutions" but blaming and even punishing innocent people for failing instead of pointing out on Israel government who have the power to make it happens. They get emotional when they remember the Warsaw ghetto, but they don't get anything out of the prison in which the Palestinians have lived for decades. They make memorials around the world remembering the Holocaust, but they end up justifying a genocide following on the internet in real time. Such hypocrisy perplexes me, especially when I discover it in close friends and colleagues.

Gaza was, is and will be a city that, due to its strategic location as a crossroads between continents, suffers the vicissitudes of each era. Those who survive the madness they live today will be able to tell their descendants that there was a time when they were surrounded by another people who blame them for things their shady rulers supposedly did. This happened already many times in the past. The bitter irony is that this rulers were elected "democratically" once for ever because of american pressure. And that such level of destruction is made by the State that supposely is the guardian of freedom and human rights as the only really democratic nations in the middle east. As in the past, remote and recent, it is difficult for the world to know of the atrocities committed, unfortunately is it not expected that there will be a reliable trial of the people who participated in terrorist acts, neither those perpetuated by Hamas, nor those carried out by the Israeli army.

The history of humanity is very rich in plots, manipulations and revenges that have really bloodied whole generations. We still suffer the aftermath of the nazi regime that cowardly and stupidily try to erase a whole nation with the complicity of people who have not the inteligence, not the willingness to stop it. They choose to believe the war propaganda portraiting people as animals that do not deserve life. We have a moral obligation to demand truth, trial, and punishment of the guilty; but above all, to unite our efforts for the innocent. We all must support the international efforts for peace, clearly expressed by the UN Secretary-General who called for an immediate ceasefire, and clear evidences of a rationale plan to combat terrorism. But as in the past, colonizers and emperors do not listen to those who desire peace. May God judge their actions, because humanity with all its institutions seems powerless.