Translated from French by PAJU
Several Western governments seem very proud of announcing their intention to recognize the State of Palestine, presenting this intention as an act of immense political courage. Media coverage of these positions has been very favorable, free of criticism. The air-dropping of food supplies, which has provoked dehumanizing stampedes and deaths, is also presented as a courageous act of solidarity with the Palestinians.
However, even a minimal understanding of this issue reveals these actions as a futile attempt to ease their consciences or save face, while everything is being done to perpetuate the problem, while a genocide is underway with the active support of these same powers.
Let’s start with the recognition of Palestine as a state. It’s been 32 years since the Oslo Accords that they have been talking about the Two-State solution. The Oslo Accords make no mention of the Palestinian state, not even as a future project. Only a “final settlement” planned for five years later was mentioned. We can now see what the current Israeli government means by a ‘final settlement’. It should be called a final solution, with all the terrible connotations that this expression carries. But since Oslo, all international discussions on the issue have assumed that the Two-State solution was the goal.
So, for 32 years we’ve been talking about a Two-State solution while only one state is recognized as a negotiating partner, and 32 years later, they are bragging about the intention to recognize the other party—I mean the intention, not the recognition. And this hasn’t caused any editorial board in the mainstream to raise even a feeble cry of protest. Mr. Carney, you’re at least 32 years late (much later if we go back to the origins of the current conflict). Don’t you understand?
As for air-dropping food, it is absolutely essential to emphasize that: a) it is dehumanizing; b) it leads to horrible situations of starving people throwing themselves on bags of flour that are too heavy for the weakest among them, bags of tea damaged by the sea they fell into, people drowning trying to retrieve crumbs, etc.; c) it is not effective, and people continue to starve; and finally, d) there are better solutions to this emergency situation. Six thousand trucks of food are waiting at the gates of Gaza, and one organization, ONLY ONE, has the capacity to carry out the distribution in acceptable conditions, and that is UNRWA. Presenting air-dropping food as a step forward is despicable. It is an attempt to make acceptable what should be unacceptable. It is not only the humanity of the Palestinians that is denied in all this, but also our own right-thinking Western societies that actively participate in the genocide and who think they can exonerate themselves by paying lip service to the suffering of the Palestinians.
This situation demonstrates the complete internalization of the Israeli narrative by Canadian and Quebec political and media elites (and others). A catch-all answer to all these contradictions: Hamas is a terrorist organization! But look at the openly fascist speeches of Israeli politicians who call for the massacre of civilians, without distinction. Look at the actions of the Israeli army, not only since October 7, but well before. The website of OCHA, a United Nations agency, gives all the figures for Palestinian civilian deaths BEFORE October 7. Look at Israeli strategies (army and settlers combined) in the West Bank, where there is neither Hamas nor hostages. Look at the courageous positions of Israeli human rights organizations, which are public and accessible. There is no excuse for pretending we don’t know.
And it is not a declaration of the condemnation of Israeli “exaggerations” that will save the face of the government. Two actions are absolutely required. The first, diplomatic and muscular, so that the 6,000 trucks of food and medical products waiting at the borders of Gaza can enter this open-air concentration camp. And a second, political, to acknowledge the process of dispossession of the Palestinians that began more than a hundred years ago, and to impose on Israel a humanly acceptable solution where the 15 million humans who live in historic Palestine can live as equals in the same state, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation. We cannot remake the past of dispossession and ethnic cleansing. But we can imagine a future without apartheid.
