Israeli Crimes in Gaza Force Hamas to War

Sent to us by the author, Brett Redmayne-Titley

The Hamas Movement on Thursday warned it would not remain passive any more if the blockade on the Gaza Strip continued.

As reported by Ma’an News Agency, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called for swiftly moving to lift the siege on Gaza from all sides or else the Movement and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades would have to escalate the situation and break the blockade.  

Predictably, Hamas is back. By necessity: stronger than ever.

On Jan 14, 2015, Hamas suddenly convened a session of the Gaza parliament, suspended since a unity deal between Fatah and Hamas was agreed upon, this past  April. There was no attendance by, or invitation to, Fatah. Thanks to illegitimate president Mahmoud Abbas’ leadership, Gazans were left to rot in the post-war depths of Israeli created misery compounded with a bitter winter living amongst Israeli produced rubble. Deliberate delays in reconstruction, materials and funding; the ongoing, unchanged and crippling Israeli siege; and the Palestinian Authority’s withholding of tens-of-millions of dollars to pay monthly salaries to Gaza’s civil servants, have created a need for the return of an Hamas government, for the Gazan people in Gaza. In a speech before the re-activated parliament, Deputy Speaker of the Gaza parliament, Ahmad Bahar, warned, “A blowup is at a distance of two-bow lengths or less if the international community does not take action to end the suffering of the people of Gaza.”

An interesting choice of metaphor. At the top of Hamas’s agenda is opening Gaza’s one sea port to travel and commerce, i.e., imports of goods and passengers, whether Israel likes it or not. As reported, “On Sunday, a ministerial committee in blockaded Gaza announced plans to take necessary measures to prepare the coastal enclave’s sole port.” Young Palestinian children have been taking part in activities aimed at making the seaport into a better looking place for visitors. The port in Gaza City is currently restricted, by Israel, to fishermen. Israel, however, only allows them to fish up to a maximum of six nautical miles from the shore. Opening the port and allowing fishermen access to all Palestinian waters were two main Palestinian demands during negotiations with Israel which ended the 50-day war in July and August. So, to prove the point, yesterday Israeli gun boats opened fire on fishermen that were inside that six-mile limit: just because they can. A similar incident was reported near Gaza City on January 31.

A border, a truce or a treaty with Gaza means nothing to Israel. This was highlighted this past Sunday morning when Israeli soldiers opened fire at unarmed Palestinian protesters marching near the border fence on their land, in their Gaza. This aggression came within days of Israel lifting quasi-restrictions on arresting Palestinian children at night (an average of 197 children are held in military detention every month, 13 per cent of whom are under the age of sixteen) and approving hundreds more illegal settlement units while killing a Bedouin teenager audacious enough to protest this new Israeli land-grab on his ancestral lands. And, all the while, unchecked Israeli settlers were chopping down hundreds more olive trees: making sure that any future branch, offered in peace, would never survive, much less prosper.
Was this summer’s five week long nightly-news-reel review of the day’s grizzly carnage in Gaza not enough for the world to recognize the heinous mind-set that is fundamental to Israeli foreign policy in Gaza? Did 2,129  Gazans, including five-hundred-thirteen children, die uselessly in vain merely for the morbid titillation of a world momentarily distracted from their equally violent video games? Review of the divisive “progress” for peace in Gaza over the past six months shows that the answer is, oh, so shamefully, “yes.”
For justice in Gaza, a newly bolstered Hamas is required.  As the only sincere force for political and social good in Palestine this growing movement  follows in the mold of Hezbollah’s effective example of leadership in Lebanon. Hamas leadership also provides badly needed social services and programs, and the only effective deterrent that the Israeli oppressors understand: armed resistance.

Hamas recruiting, reportedly, has increased dramatically in the post-war period. Training of all recruits and renewed preparedness for battle goes on daily. Of course. Likely, each and every Palestinian knows someone who was killed by targeted Israeli atrocity: perhaps a family member, perhaps a whole family. Remember: in Gaza, losing one’s whole family likely means having all your infant nieces and nephews, younger brothers or older sisters, your sons, your daughters, your  father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, disappear, forever, in a cloud of collapsing concrete dust and Israeli gun powder smoke. Just six months ago, whole families were destroyed. Many times over.

A world of witnesses may have short memories: a Hamas recruit does not.

When the conditions for the truce with Hamas were agreed to by Israel, upon close examination of the troika selected to sit at the peace table (Egypt, Fatah, and Israel) without Hamas, only the disaffected or apathetic  would have bet a shekel on an actual peace treaty. Thanks to the skullduggery and complicity of this scheming troika, Gaza suffers worse than ever before. The three are in league in serving Israel’s goal of assimilating Palestinian territory via illegal settlements, walls and genocide, while all-the-time avoiding peace in order to continue their usual inhumane treatment, war crimes, and violations of UN resolutions.

Israel’s actions indicate that it wants conflict in Gaza and, again, war. As General of the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Jibril, accurately and historically stated to Fars News Network, “When someone approaches you through force and drives you out (from your land), you should confront it only with force as that enemy understands. No language, but force.” All observations indicate that Hamas is preparing to take up the sword and, again, defend Gaza.

The first garrison will likely be the Gaza seaport.

Solely due to their quest for international recognition and justice, this past month has been exemplary of Gaza’s plight. To start the New Year, on Jan 2., after repeated and vicious public encouragement from Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas reluctantly joined the International Criminal Court (ICC), despite Netanyahu’s constant warnings. The court is headed by international lawyer and sincere champion of true humanity, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court; Mrs. Fatou Bensouda of Gambia. So,Israel is furious at the prospect of a fair trial, which it will lose, sending a pack of Zionists running from international warrants. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement that, “this step will be a spark of hope that Palestinians will be able to see the Israeli leadership prosecuted and held accountable for their crimes.”

The cunning tactics employed by this troika ever since, shows why the rise in Hamas’ renewed political strength is now required and that its upcoming use of the al-Qassam brigades will not be surprising.

This week, due to Israeli pressure on the Head of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) William Schabas, a Canadian academic who was tasked in August with leading a separate United Nations backed group examining war crimes during the Israeli regime’s military offensive in Gaza, has resigned. He wrote in a letter “My views on Israel and Palestine, as well as on many other issues, were well known and very public,” adding, “This work in defense of human rights appears to have made me a huge target for malicious attacks.” Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, said on Tuesday, “This clearly displays the organized Israeli state terrorism that targets anyone who tries to unveil the truth and bring Israeli leaders to account in the international forums.”

Fresh from massacring, last week, at least twenty-three Egyptians in clashes between police and protesters on the fourth anniversary of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, current president-for-life, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is playing host to the supposed Gaza peace talks, had his pet Supreme Court, on Saturday, ban Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam brigades and list it as a “terrorist” organization. This is the same court that, as previously ordered by el-Sisi, outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood after having already changed the constitution in order to legally legitimize el-Sisi’s coup that jailed Mohamed Morsi. This led to his unopposed election as president, last year. An Hamas political official told Reuters, “We reject the Egyptian court’s decision against Qassam Brigades. It is a political, dangerous decision that serves only the Zionist occupation. After the court’s decision, Egypt is no longer a mediator in Palestinian-Israeli matters.”

As part of the cease-fire agreement Hamas demanded that Egypt guarantee that it’s Rafah border crossing would open regularly. This has actually meant infrequent, unannounced openings of no more than three days, creating chaos. Very few trucks carrying much needed goods and as few as three-hundred people a day have managed to cross.

Previously, el-Sisi, as peace broker, had shown his sincerity to his task by finding and destroying all tunnels across the Egyptian-Gaza border, further starving Gaza from its last lifeline of desperately needed goods. Then he ordered his military to shoot-to-kill any Gazans approaching his imposed 400 meter de-militarized zone on the Gaza side of the border fence. Gazan Health Ministry Spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told the AFP news agency on Friday, Jan. 30, that a man was shot “in the back and the bullet settled in the heart. He died on the spot”. He was identified as Palestinian, Zaki Houbi. He was 17 years old.

Far- a-field, the craftsman of this ongoing surreptitious war against Gaza, Bibi Netanyahu, was busy influencing a change of heart in his minions in the EU parliament. Before leaving for Europe lather, after the Jan. 2 ICC disaster, he had already re-arrested most of the Palestinian prisoners who had been released, per the cease-fire, from illegal detention in Israeli jails, including the duly-elected Hamas officials from the 2006 election and those nabbed in retaliation for the 2006 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange  .

He next reacted by furiously,  yet again, illegally freezing $127 million in tax revenues that by law must be transferred to the Palestinian Authority so that tens of thousands of public sector workers will finally be paid, as promised. For BiBi, that was just a warm-up. Israeli forces on Thursday destroyed a water network which feeds Palestinian villages and Bedouin dwellings in the northern Jordan Valley.

Suddenly, despite the ruling by the General Court of the European Union, on Dec. 17, that said correctly, “the blacklisting of Hamas in 2001 was based not on sound legal judgments but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet,”  all twenty-eight EU member states decided to appeal the court’s decision.

Now, the United Nations has stopped rebuilding of homes in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip amid freezing temperatures, citing lack of funds from pledged donors.

Said a UNHRW spokesman, “$5.4 billion was pledged at the Cairo (aid) conference last October and virtually none of it has reached Gaza. This is distressing and unacceptable.”

And, Israeli politicians are now calling on the one-hundred-twenty-two member states of the International Criminal Court to cut all its funding in response to the beginning of its inquiry into probable war crimes in Gaza last year. Obviously, “[this] provides it (Israel) with the cover for its crimes against the Palestinian people,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Such is Zionist influence.

As for Mr. Abbas, the recent cancelation of the Swedish ambassador’s visit said all that was needed. His post-war track record and Israel’s murder of Palestinian Authority minister, Ziad Abu Ein, at a peaceful West Bank protest on Dec 10. made a meeting apparently far too risky in Ramallah. As the first EU member nation to formally recognize Palestine, this past October, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom was set to met with Abbas and Israeli officials in Israel instead. This week, she indefinitely postponed a planned trip to Israel, reportedly in response to Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s refusal to meet with her when she came. Now, Mahmoud Abbas, un-elected President of Palestine, will fly to Stockholm on Feb. 10, fresh from serving up an obviously mushy UN draft resolution for Palestinian statehood that, as designed, failed to overcome the expected veto. His leadership, or lack thereof has only served Israel’s agenda.

Hamas has been busy shoring up preparations, which also means foreign political support, new funding sources, besides stocks of munitions. As reported by Ma’an News Agency, senior Hamas official on Thursday demanded that a seaport be fully opened in Gaza, warning of an “explosion” if Israel’s siege and the Egyptian closure of Rafah continue. He called on the “free people of the world” to send ships to break the blockade, and urged the Arab League, the OIC, and Arab nations to uphold their responsibilities to Gaza. A detailed report in Al-Monitor news, disclosed Hamas’ intentions to open the port and break the blockade.
Recent trips by Hamas officials to NATO partner Turkey and Iran, were apparently fruitful. This week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, saying, “We believe that the root cause of problems in the region is the usurping occupation of Palestinian territories. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s goal is (the establishment of) stability and security in the Middle-East and settlement of the Palestinian issue to return the Palestinian refugees to their homeland.”

Much better, however, was Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, saying that Tehran was providing Hamas and Hezbollah with the needed know-how to mass-produce different types of short- and mid-range missiles. As quoted by the Palestinian news agency, Wafa, Senior Hamas representative acknowledged, “Ever since the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran the Palestinian crisis has been a major propriety for Iran, whose relations with the Palestinians are of strategic value for both sides.”

Unbelievably, Turkey has reportedly been working to persuade Hamas to recognize Israel. The Turkish news agency, Anadolu, reported Jan.12, that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Hamas was ready to recognize the Jewish state. A politically wise move, indeed. If true, this seemingly incredible change in Hamas policy would change the dynamics of peace in Gaza and the Middle East. With Hamas accepting Israel, rationale by Israel to opposing a peace deal falls away. Hamas, in world of public opinion, takes on the white hat against Israeli manipulation, influence and atrocity to a  world still outraged at the visual atrocity of the Gaza war and waking up quickly to the truth. This weekend, Over 500 rabbis from Israel, Britain, the US and Canada have called on the Israeli prime minister to stop demolishing Palestinian homes.

This same wholesale outrage must continue to grow in the daysahead for the sake of Gaza. It is only world opinion that stopped the last, full-scale example of Israeli army horror. When Hamas establishes a sea port, only world opinion will stop the next.

The stage appears to be set for another direct military conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Gaza cannot continue to suffer, after already suffering one of the most barbaric attacks in modern history. The people will not stand for it. Hamas will not stand for it. With more troops in training, new and replenished weaponry, increased sources of funding, strengthened political ties with Hezbollah and Iran, and Palestinians from the West Bank to Gaza hungry for real national leadership, Hamas is ready. The only Government ever legitimately elected by the people of Palestine, is back.

With the re-opening of parliament the intention will be to open the Gaza City port, and therefore Gaza, to the world. Regardless of Israel. A port is a necessary lifeline. More importantly, it is also a statement of sovereignty for Gaza. Like the flag, a port is also a symbol of national freedom: for Palestine. It will be defended.

The horrifying question now becomes: How many people will Israel kill when Hamas and a sympathetic world use the agreed-upon terms of the cease-fire agreement, and Gaza’s territorial waters, to bring promised relief to Gazans via Gaza’s sovereign port?

As Mao famously, and accurately observed long ago,” Without An Army For The People: There is nothing for the people.”

Sadly, Israel has given the people of Gaza no alternative but death. Hamas; the Army of the Gazan people, prepares to fight.

Before it’s too late, again… World! : what say you?

Je suis Gaza?

Je suis Hamas?

– by Brett Redmayne-Titley