– by Yahav Zohar –

May 2021

Israel-Palestine is in the news again, there are bombs and rockets lighting up the sky, turning homes to rubble and dramatically toppling towers. Heads turn in our direction and people want to know what’s going on. “Israel is bombing us” say Gazans. “Hamas shot rockets first” say Israelis. If you follow the news you might think all this began on May 10^th, with Hamas shooting rockets in the general direction of Jerusalem and Israel responding. That moment, when things flared up, was the moment the cameras switched on and the news story began. Given that framework, the media narrative is about two sides bombing each other and the argument who started, who targeted civilians and is this a fair fight.

“Violence Without Context” could be a fitting title for many news broadcasts, especially ones about far away countries. The news talks about “the Palestinian Gaza Strip” but rarely mentions that the strip has been under Israeli-Egyptian siege for some 15 years, or that previous Israeli bombings have destroyed most of its infrastructure to the point where sewage floods the water table and 95% of the water is, according to the UN, undrinkable. Certainly, the news does not explain that all the places Gazans are firing missiles at in present day Israel are in what was historical Palestine, that the Palestinian towns and villages there were forcefully depopulated by the nascent Israeli army in the 1948 war and that the majority of Gazans are the descendants of refugees Israel has absolutely refused to allow the return of or even to recompense for their lost land and homes. 

While most western viewers have in their minds some knowledge of the historic persecution of Jews in Europe that culminated in the Holocaust, very few know anything of the Nakba, the catastrophe that befell Palestinians soon after , as they were driven out to make way for a Jewish state. Few know that it was then, in 1948, that masses of Palestinian refugees were herded into the narrow Gaza Strip and most have remained trapped there ever since, first under Egyptian military government, then Israeli military government, and more recently, with a semblance of independence under siege.

There is very rarely any mention of how Israel has helped Hamas rise to power in the strip and kept it in power, most recently with the delivery of monthly Qatari briefcases full of cash to keep its “government” running. Very few are talking about the fact that this recent round started after the Israeli government performed a series of actions in Jerusalem that seemed almost calculated to push Palestinian buttons and plunge us into another round in violence and create a state of emergency just in time for Netanyahu to make another desperate attempt at forming a government coalition.

News stories might mention that the most recent round of rockets was preceded by mounting tensions in Jerusalem, around the Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah. But again, very rarely will the news have time to mention that Palestinians in Jerusalem live under Israeli rule without Israeli citizenship, that the families facing eviction in Sheikh Jarrah are themselves refugees of the 1948 war, now being displaced once again to make way for Jewish settlement.

For Palestinians, the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, in Jaffa and in Lydd, as well as the siege of Gaza, are part of the ongoing Nakba. They all follow from the logic that sought to establish a “Jewish-Democratic” state in a land in which Jews were a minority and even today, after many decades of “demographic policy” and forced evictions, is very close to 50/50 Jews and Arabs. 

None of this is meant to support Hamas or its rockets, which are deplorable as well as counterproductive. It is our fervent hope that this is the last time we see rockets fired from Gaza and Israeli bombings of the strip. It is just that as long as we keep ignoring the context the chances of any of this ending, or even significantly changing, seem very slim. 

Instead we hope that by telling our stories, Israelis and Palestinians, beyond the headline and the things blowing up, we might help people here and around the world get a clearer view of the long and complicated mess we are embroiled in, and move towards actions that will not just win one or another round, but bring about systemic change for the benefit of Israelis and Palestinians both. 

To gain more context on this issue, please watch Yahav and our Senior Palestinian partner, Mohammad, in two webinars available now for free on our YouTube channel. Be sure to like, share and subscribe.