News Analysis by Khalid Amayreh in East Jerusalem
In a clearly propagandistic effort, the Israeli government, in coordination with American Zionist organizations, has decided to give a relatively small amount of aid to Refugees in Darfur.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who vehemently opposes the repatriation of Palestinian refugees to their homes, from which they were expelled at gunpoint by Jewish terrorist gangs in 1948, was quoted on Sunday, 13 May, as saying that the donation of $5 million dollars was intended to “relieve the intolerable situation” in the tragedy-stricken Western Sudan region.
“As I said when I spoke before the United Nations last year, there are certain places in which the world must act.” Livni was quoted as saying.
Livni, however, tacitly admitted that at least one of the reasons, if not the main reason, for the “Darfur aid program” was “to enhance Israel’s image” abroad.
In fact, this seems to be the main goal of the proposed aid to Darfur, namely “enhancing Israel’s ugly image.”
Israel is probably one of the world’s premier criminal state as far as treatment of refugees is concerned, given its systematic persecution of the Palestinian people and rabid refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in what is now Israel.
Indeed, apart from stealing Palestinian land, demolishing Palestinian homes and bulldozing Palestinians farms, fields and orchards, the Israeli government has been denying Palestinians free access to food and work, pushing numerous Palestinian families to the brink of starvation and even famine. And Israel always has a ready mantra to justify the ugly practice: Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
According to a United Nations report presented to the Donors Conference several months ago, “37% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip had trouble getting food in 2004. Another 27% were at risk of running into such difficulties,”
Moreover, the report showed that nearly half the “Palestinian population was poor, with poverty rate in the Gaza Strip reaching a staggering 65%,” the report continued.
“Up to 16% of Palestinians—550,000—were living on $1.5 a day, with the likelihood that the figure will rise to 35% if aid is not forthcoming.”
More to the point, it is widely believed that malnutrition among children in the West Bank and especially in the Gaza strip is now at the highest level since 1967, with the main reason being Israel’s refusal to allow Palestinian breadwinners to access work.
In addition, Israel has been effectively stealing Palestinian money by way of withholding the transfer of more than $750 million dollars of tax revenue to the Palestinian government.
Indeed, Israel’s adamant refusal to release the monthly payments, which represent more than one third of the Palestinian Authority (PA) budget has caused what amounts to be a financial meltdown in the erstwhile autonomous enclaves, crippling the PA government’s ability to pay salaries for the estimated 150,000 civil servants.
Besides seeking to enhance its essentially ugly image, Israel apparently hopes that by highlighting and publicizing “Jewish aid to Muslim refugees,” Israeli and Zionist circles will be able to have the “moral high ground” and therefore divert attention from Israel’s Nazi-like practices against the peoples of the Middle East, especially the Palestinians and the Lebanese.
Last year, the Israeli air force dropped nearly 3000,000 cluster bomblets over Lebanon, causing the death and maiming of numerous civilians.
The 3000,000 bomblets would be sufficient to kill or maim at least three million Lebanese children. In other words the storm of carpet bombing was enough to cause a holocaust, or at least half a holocaust.
Moreover, Israel effectively has destroyed the basic civilian infrastructure in both Lebanon and Gaza Strip, including power stations, streets, bridges, power stations, and even schools and colleges, inflicting untold misery and suffering to innocent civilians.
Hence, it is hard to really thank Israel for doing a “good deed” that is intended first and foremost to divert attention from Israel’s brutal ugliness in Gaza, the West Bank and south Lebanon and also to enable the Nazi-minded Israeli government to continue with its apartheid polices and criminal practices against the Palestinians.
It is often said that charity begins at home. In Israel’s case, we see no charity at home. Even the few refugees from Darfur are dumped in detention camps, just like their comrades in suffering, the estimated 11000 Palestinian detainees languishing in Israeli jails for opposing Zionism.
In fact, instead of charity, we see roadblocks, home demolitions, land confiscations and the particularly satanic policy of starving millions of innocent Palestinians in order to “soften them up” and make them accept the status of slaves.
We also see cruelty, a lot of cruelty, as well as callousness, meanness, and indescribable barbarianism that transcend reality.
This is not something that came out of the blue. It is a systematic policy by the Israeli government aimed at bullying the Palestinians to capitulate and accept apartheid and perpetual occupation. Didn’t the former Israeli official, Dov Weisglass, declare last year that “we will make Palestinians go on a diet.”
For all these reasons, it is imperative that this Israeli “charity” to the refugees of Darfur be put in the context of Israel’s hasbara efforts, namely to distract attention from Israel’s ruthless treatment of the Palestinian people.
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© 2007 Khalid Amayreh
'HASBARA': Hasbara (הסברה) (or hasbarah) is a Hebrew noun that literally means "explanation". The term has been used by the State of Israel and by independent groups to describe their efforts to explain Israeli government policies, and to promote Israel to the world at large.
Hasbara is viewed positively, and is actively encouraged, by almost all Jewish, Zionist, and Israeli organizations and instititutions. They believe that hasbara bears similarities to programming on the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and the BBC World Service.
Critics claim that hasbara is propaganda or public relations. According to them, Israeli efforts are no different from any other public relations effort to promote their views, actions and achievements in order to coordinate supporters, attract the undecided and skeptics, and counteract the efforts of opponents. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasbara)
