The Status Quo

Despite my living in Israel during the past few weeks of insanity particularly in Gaza, I might as well be observing it from the States.

A mini war, dubbed a holocaust (Shoah) by Israel's Deputy Defense Minister, took place in Gaza and life just went on as usual here in most of Israel. Actually calling it a 'war' implies that two proper, equal armies were fighting each other. It is critical to remember that this is not the case.

What we are observing is the slaughter of hundreds of indigenous people who have been crowded onto a small area in their homeland and practically starved by a nearly complete ongoing border closure. The slaughter is perpetrated by highly destructive, precise and advanced weaponry that killed 114 people in the West Bank and Gaza during the week of February 28th, most of whom were civilians.

In contrast, one Israeli has been killed by the rockets coming from the Gaza Strip since last May. These rockets are imprecise, primitive in comparison, and about as destructive as a metal pipe falling out of the air can be.

Now, the eight students who were killed in Jerusalem were killed by an East Jerusalem resident who picked up a gun. While tragic, the event does not change the unequal nature of this conflict.

Life around me hasn't really changed much in a tangible sense, except for that I read the news. My neighbors watch the Hebrew news that plays and replays Israeli kids in Sderot running for shelter when sirens go off, contributing to a sense of fascination with fear built off of the one Israeli killed by these Qassem rockets since last May. However, next door to the carnage in Gaza, and a school shooting in Jerusalem, I haven't felt in an immediate sense the effects of violence. (In fact, the violence I've felt the most in the past few weeks came not from events in Israel or Palestine, but from UNC where the student body president was recently found murdered.) Considering my life pattern and the life pattern of all those around me, nothing has become particularly extraordinary. I might as well be observing from the States.

And this is precisely the point I want to get across with this post: life in Israel goes on largely as usual while the Israeli army maintains a continual war of varying scale on the entire Palestinian population just on the other side of its borders. This is the status quo.

I've visited the West Bank several times over the past year. Every time I go, someone connected to the people I visit has been killed. Once it was a 16 year old boy at the Qalandia checkpoint. Once, two university student activists were assassinated by Apache helicopters in the middle of the night. Always you might hear the shrill whistles of the kids who spot the army approaching.

The raids into peoples homes are always happening. Some of these are raids into the homes of militant activists, such as this one in Gaza when 'targeted killings' resumed. The wanted member of Islamic Jihad was killed, and so was his granddaughter, an 8-day old infant, who was shot in the head. As Mohammad pointed out, this is normal in Gaza.

As I mentioned in an earlier post about a 12-year-old Egyptian girl who was apparently shot by a sniper from the Israeli border, these specific shootings of children directly in the head by Israeli soldiers are not likely to be accidents, especially if they occur during a home raid at close range. Why is it difficult for some Kabobreaders to believe that these are not accidents? Is it difficult for you to believe that human beings are not above killing children? I wish that I, too, had more faith in humanity. But humanity has proven time and again that we are perfectly capable of the most despicable of crimes. I see no reason to have more faith in the mercy of an Israeli soldier raiding a home in Gaza than in that of the East Jerusalem resident who shot up the Jerusalem school. There is no such thing as a moral army.

A few days ago, I would have said that in all likelihood the latest victims of the carnage in Gaza will be buried, and Israelis will go on living their very normal lives while Gaza starves. Now, with the Jerusalem shooting and the ensuing restrictions on movement in the West Bank and Jerusalem, there looms a frightening cycle of reprisal violence that I sincerely hope does not ensue. There may be more violence that reaches Israelis, or there may not be. However, there is certainty that violence will continue to infiltrate the everyday lives of Palestinians, even if it does not make headlines.

If I may quote Will, settler-colonial projects beget violence. I would add to that statement and point out that settler-colonial projects beget violence of great inequality.