Graham A. Harvey: Death toll in Palestine: 6,546...2,704 children, 1,584 women among victims since October 7. How many more must die?

It’s been just over two weeks since Hamas launched its attack on Israel, killing about 1400 people. I consider this a tragedy as all killing of humans by others in my mind is a tragedy.

In this blog I will talk about the tragedy of October 7 and the tragedy of what has happened since. I’m also going to talk about the origins of the wars between Israel & Palestine & hopefully provide some solutions, but of course solutions only work when people are willing to sit down, listen to each other’s concerns & try & find a solution.

I have written about the Israel Palestine situation on various occasions & two blogs/ articles that I have written are listed at the end of this essay.

Over the years I have had the privilege to have made friends with many people who are Jewish. I have not met so many Palestinians, but in the last few years I have spent time in Morocco & Turkey & through those experiences I have made friends with people who are Muslim and in the case of Morocco, Arabic as well. All these friends have been fun to hang out with, full of compassion & love of life, dealing with challenges like all humans do, but also dealing with challenges of the groups they belong to.

As a child, when I learnt about the holocaust and other attacks on Jewish people, I felt much compassion and similarly when attacks occur against Muslim people, I feel compassion too. When the attacks on Muslims happened at the two mosques in New Zealand, I thought of how my friends could have been targets.

Israel- Palestine is a very complex issue so it is not surprising that there is so much conflict. The origins of the state of Israel & the history of Palestine is one where many people choose information that suits their viewpoint and much information is spread that is biased. The media manages to confuse with biased reporting and so many people in the world favour one group over the other. I am not Jewish or Palestinian, so that helps me to be more independent in my thinking & to try & see different situations & points of view. Growing up in New Zealand, as a nation, New Zealand has always believed in the right of Israel to exist, but New Zealand has also become increasingly concerned about the treatment of Palestinians by Israel.

So, let’s do some basic history first. And while I am a teacher, I am not a high school history teacher. But this year in particular, I have been doing a lot of reading on world history. So that has helped me form a better picture of general tendencies in the progress of humans.

As a child I learnt how important the Middle East was. Raised as a Christian, I learnt that Jesus was Jewish and that the area he had lived in was today called Israel. I later learnt about the holocaust & how Israel emerged after WWII as a refuge for surviving Jews. What I did not learn about at the time was that in the formation of Israel, many Palestinians had been displaced. But as a child there were many terrorist events against Israel, with the west condemning, while there was a clear message that these events were happening because of Palestinians being pushed off their land.

So, who was in the Palestine/ Israel area first? Depends how far in time we go back. If we go back 2000 years, then it was Jewish people, but if we go back further then we are looking at earlier groups of people & societies.

If we look at the area in the last 2000 years, since 70AD, not many Jews, as the Romans expelled Jewish people from Jerusalem which began the first major wave of Jewish people resettling in other parts of the world. While many Jews would have moved to other areas nearby, Islam emerged by the 7^th Century, so many people in the region converted to Islam. At different times with Christian Crusades, there were many Christians for a while. But for most of the last 1400 years, most of the area was under control of the Ottomans and therefore mostly Muslim.

Something I have come to learn more this year is that almost everywhere, societies and groups have been replaced by others, usually through violent take overs. The history of humanity is mostly about thuggish & crafty behaviour winning the day. The educated are often eliminated as are differences.

This history of brutality by humans with invasions & genocide is unfortunately more the norm than the oddity. There are many groups who lived in different places in the past or have been conquered. This is part of the story of colonialism too. And the question emerges, if someone pushes you off your land do you have recourse to demand its return and if so for how long?

I suppose what makes the Israel situation different to many other situations is that Jewish identity remained strong through the 2000 years of living in different locations & so the idea of returning to Zion existed as an idea for many Jewish people, but it was in the 19^th Century that the idea of Zionism really grew. On the back of various pogroms and attacks on Jewish people, it’s not surprising that such a group of people would seek a safe haven.

It was interesting to hear a British politician saying a week or two ago that Britian should stay out of the Israel- Palestine drama as it is not their problem. I would argue instead that it is absolutely Britian’s problem. They created it. At the beginning of the 20th Century, various places were being considered as a location for a new nation for Jewish people. Well intentioned and wanting to create a place where Jewish people would be able to live without threat to life. The decimation of Jewish people in Europe in the last few centuries prior to the Holocaust is big. Uganda was considered by Britian. Other places were also considered.

After WWI, Britian took control of Palestine as the Ottoman empire crumbled. At that time 15% of the population in Palestine was Jewish but based on the historical link to the area, British politicians thought the area was the ideal for creating a Jewish homeland which would be half the area, while Palestinians living in the region would have the other half.

The Palestinians were never consulted about such a plan, and as Jewish migration to Palestine began, many Palestinians were wary of such a development. As anti semitism rose in the 1930s, more Jewish people sought out Palestine. At the end of WWII, Jewish people who had managed to survive the holocaust tried to seek refuge there too.

Palestinians never agreed to a 50% deal with Jewish people. At first Jewish people were willing. But if you think logically, why would Palestinians give up 50% of the land that they regarded as theirs? Terrorist events spiralled between Jewish & Palestinian groups, the British pulled out, war broke out & the Jewish faction gained control. And that’s the situation that has maintained itself since, with Israel taking control of the whole area, controlling Palestinians in all kinds of ways and increasingly turning land of Palestinians over to Israeli settlers.

Right from the word go, Israel has had to fight to defend its borders as all its neighbours are Arabic & Muslim and regard what Israel has done to the Palestinians as an attack on their brothers & sisters. Israel has survived several attacks by neighbouring countries or groups in neighbouring countries. Over time, walls have been built to create a divide between Israel & Palestinian territory as various terrorist events have occurred by Palestinians against Israel. Only through a strong military has Israel been able to exist along with the military backing of the United States.

Outside Israel, the United States is probably the only other country with a reasonably sized Jewish population. Many assume that is the reason that the US supports Israel, and while there is a strong influence by a Jewish lobby in the US, the US support to Israel is for other reasons I believe. A strategic player & ally in the region to access oil & other resources is one reason & I suspect the other is a moral response to the holocaust. There is also a powerful evangelical Christian lobby who see Israel as important in the ‘last days’.

There are varying opinions of how much Germans or other people knew about the holocaust at the time it was occurring. But what is clear is that at the end of WWII when the US and other western nations saw what had happened to Jewish people by Nazi Germany, there was a moment of shock, possibly unlike any other time in history. The scale & barbarity & efficiency with which the Nazi system eliminated 6 out of 9 million Jewish people was on a scale of efficiency that the world has not seen before and certainly for it happen in a European country, a supposedly civilised one, made many people the world over feel shame and despair for what had happened.

When Jewish people created the state of Israel, they achieved it on their own and have been playing hardball ever since. For many westerners, their sympathy & compassion towards Jewish people and what they had endured particularly under the Nazis has made a decision by many to never be critical of Israel. That is understandable, but it does not make sense. Because the group that has had to pay the price for this guilt or shame is not westerners, but the Palestinians.

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, it was not like this was the first attack against Israel. Attacks have been occurring all the time Israel has existed. But the scale of Israeli death was the biggest in its history.

Hamas got voted for by 50% of Palestinians in Gaza. Many Israelis argue that this proves all Palestinians are animals & deserve what they get. But when you start to read of all the attacks by Israel’s defence forces against Palestinians over the last few decades, you get a very different picture. Palestinians got sick of waiting for a peace solution. When you get 50% of a people voting for a terrorist organisation you can either say that it proves these people are terrorists or that they have given up on any other solution. Palestinians have been waiting 70 years and in this time it only has gotten worse.

The worst action in my view to sink the ship of peace & settlement has been the increasing moving by Jewish people into new settlements in the West Bank. That land is supposed to be Palestine.

Western countries are scared to censor Israel at all times. Other countries condemn, especially Arab nations.

There are some very strange things happening with this bias at the moment. Read different newspapers and explore how much they are reporting on the impact of October 7 to Israelis vs what has happened to Palestinians since that date. Same with most Western politicians.

The extension of this fear has been to curtail democracy, just to appear loyal to Israel. Banning a pro-Palestinian march in Berlin because of concerns of anti semitism; we must always understand that criticising Israel & its actions is very different to being against Jewish people. In fact, as I have always argued, real security for Jewish people lies in an Israel that is held to account. An Israel that kills as it wishes makes a world where anti-Israel sentiments can easily shift into hatred against Jews.

A similar story of a university in Britain where an academic was sacked for criticising Israel & its policies but was labelled anti-semitic. Israel manipulates this stuff to avoid criticism, but as I said, this can create a bigger issue.

Israel must be held to the same standards as any other country. Human rights are international. Israel will be done no favours by being allowed to bomb civilians. The animosity building in the world now towards Israel is huge because most western countries are not holding Israel accountable for the same standards required of other countries. Gaza is where the terrorists who committed the atrocities on October 7 are hiding out. But so are over 2 million people. So far, the bombings by Israel have killed over 6000 people including about 2000 children.

This kind of bombing of civilians is a war crime and Israel will be judged for it as will all countries who do not condemn it. Bombing like this does not make Israel safer in the long term. It amplifies the hatred that is very strong all through the Arab Muslim world. This hatred is amplifying and could lead to WWIII. Currently it is very easy to see an alliance emerging of Iran, Russia, China, North Korea as well as many countries in the Arab world.

Solutions lie in negotiation. When violence is used, it suppresses things only temporarily. With what is happening now in Gaza, all Israel does is increase the likelihood that many Palestinian children will become terrorists when they become older.

Israel should never have been allowed to be in control of Palestinians since they won the war in 1948.

Like other teachers in schools, we are becoming more aware of how trauma affects children and adults. The western education system is more mindful of helping children who are acting out and helping them address issues that could be causing their upset state. In the past a child was simply punished. Now an effective school has anti bullying programs to stop the bullying & also addresses the issues with the bullying child to determine if they are ok.

My sense is that Israel never has been seen the same. After what happened to Jewish people in WWII, there is this weird idea that some who support the rights of Palestinians say you would think they (Israel) would treat the Palestinians better. But of course, things are far more complex than that. When a group of people have been almost wiped out, there are various responses but what I see with Israel is them playing hard ball. NEVER AGAIN! That’s how Israel operates. It is a survivor and determined to survive.

But is it a psychologically balanced nation? Surrounded by countries that hate it for how it dominates the Palestinians, it survives by playing tough. But should it be allowed to have control over another group of people? Not if it dominates, diminishes, treats the other less than, continues to take more land, switches off electricity, water and food to cities because some of them are terrorists. Its like keeping in a whole class on detention because some did the wrong thing and you don’t know who… Except of course it is much more savage.

It is troubling to see another war, and it is equally troubling to see so many supposed leaders in the world say nothing about a ceasefire, let alone demanding it from Israel as over 2000 children have died in Gaza in two weeks

It is strange how people can fail to have compassion even for children…

Compassion is missing on all sides: How did all those Israeli families feel as their people were massacred …

And the same with the massacring/ bombing of Gaza and the deaths of so many.

Both actions are wrong.

As regards the increase in anti semitism, this is a concern. But If Israel kills massive numbers of civilians as we currently see and Israel is known as the Jewish state, then you are looking at the rise in anti semitism as some people will blame Jewish people, not just Israel. It is wrong, but this is what happens. So Israels actions are making things less safe for Jewish people.

Israel as a concept is opposed by some Jewish people. Whether Israel should exist if it means replacing another group is a valid topic too. Israel certainly needs to return the Palestinian territory in the West Bank. It is valid to criticise all countries and how they conduct themselves. There are international laws and all countries are expected to follow.

Violence only puts a lid on a problem. Negotiations are the only way.

Graham A. Harvey: The debacle of Israel and Palestine (progressiveglobalcommunication.blogspot.com)

Graham A. Harvey: Poland and the Nazi death camps (progressiveglobalcommunication.blogspot.com)

The photos below found on internet. please advise if copyright concern.