What role is the international community playing in the shootings? Is there a civil war going on in Palestine? Still, what is the relationship between sanctions and shootings? What is going to happen from now on?
By Agustin Velloso in Madrid
PalestineChronicle.com
"Is there a civil war going on in Palestine? No, but this question and an affirmative answer is what pro-Israeli media are disseminating all over the world. Hence, the average news consumer does not discuss the “reality” of the civil war.
But, are not we seeing that Palestinians are killing each other in Gaza streets?
What we are seeing is that since Hamas took power in the last legislative elections (January 2006), which were monitored by hundreds of foreign observers, Jimmy Carter amongst them, the Western powers have made all kind of political and economic maneuvers to oust the winner with the help of the loser, Abu Mazen and his Fatah party.
However, Palestine is not Iraq, there are no Western armies in Gaza, is it not an internal Palestinian affair?
It is not an internal affair. Palestine is just one more square of the big Middle East cheesboard. The international community plays in it to its advantage, namely: the control of oil and the support of its ally, Israel. The Western powers support Fatah because they say it represents the ‘moderate’ Palestinians and torpedo Hamas because its program does not fit with the Zionist and Imperialist agendas. Once Hamas obtained the majority of the Legislative Council seats, the powerful leaders, Bush, Rice, Blair, Olmert, Solana and others adopted plan B: to oust Hamas from government no matter the price (to be paid by rank and file Palestinians, of course)......
What is going to happen from now on?
There is ample room to be concerned. It has to be taken into account what Western countries –and their main ally, Israel- have been doing for years in the Middle East: the destruction of several countries, the death of millions and the suffering of many others.
The United States and Israel will keep on arming and funding the pro-cup party and its militias in order to sabotage the Palestinian project and foster instead the creative chaos they are so fond of. For Palestinians this means no return of the refugees, the continuation of the Occupation by close or remote control, the judaization of Jerusalem, the continuation of the ethnic cleansing by Israeli policies and the subjugation of millions of Palestinians in their own land. In any case, nothing different of what has been taking place since 1948."
-Agustín Velloso de Santisteban received his Ph.D. in Education from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain, where he is a lecturer in Comparative Education. He specialises in education in Palestine and education for refugees. He has been Visiting Fellow at London University, Reading University and Stanford University.
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