Israel, Palestine and the Arndale Centre

 

It's never easy, writing about the Israel-Palestine-Gaza issue. If you try to be fair, both sides accuse you of favouring the other. Besides this, some people are prone to rebuking you for things which they believe you have said, and yet, you haven't. It's happened to me a couple of times. I remember one occasion, some years ago, when the BBC screened a programme on this conflict and received exactly the same number of complaints from both sides. "Sit on the fence and you get splinters in your bum", goes the saying.

Well, so be it. I don't mind being accused of bias by both sides as long as I know that I have made an honest effort to be fair. The recent tragic events in Gaza and Israel call for people like me to try and make an objective assessment, as far as possible. The BBC has taken the lead in this, with a "Reality Check" on some of the claims made by both sides in the conflict so far. 

Among other items, the Beeb scrutinise one claim made by an aide to President Netanyahu who posted a video on Twitter purporting to show rockets being fired at Israel from Gaza. This is a still from the video:

Fact: this footage comes from Syria, and is three years old. It shows an attack made by Syrian forces against a dissident group in the city of Deraa. The Netanyahu aide took the video down after Twitter described it as "manipulated media".

From the other side, we have the fire at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The Palestinians who made the video claimed that it showed the mosque on fire, and the Israelis were letting it happen. In the actual film, you can hear some Israelis singing an anti-Palestinian song.

Fact: the mosque was never on fire. As the BBC says: 

"The video is real, but additional footage from other angles makes it clear that a tree near to the mosque had caught fire, not the mosque itself."

What cannot be disputed is the extreme brutality of the Israeli forces against Gaza, which has been well documented. I could perhaps continue on this theme, and I am not dismissing it as irrelevant, but this outbreak of warfare follows others of its type, and will presumably develop the same way. As Paul Adams comments:

"These episodes follow a familiar pattern: Israel presses home its undoubted military advantage until the international outcry over civilian casualties, and a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, demand that the operation end. In Israel's estimation, we have not reached that point yet".

Israel might well regret that. There are indications even here that the Palestinians mean serious business this time. The Palestinian ambassador to the UK, quoted in the Daily Mirror, said:

"Husam Zumlot, Palestinian ambassador to the UK, told crowds: "This time is different. This time we will not be denied any more. We are united. We have had enough of oppression."

There are signs of this within Israel. Inter-communal violence has broken out between Arab and Jewish communities and threatens to worsen.

There are even signs of this here. Four men have been arrested following what appears to have been a pro-Palestinian mini-motorcade through a Jewish area in North London on Sunday. From a car bearing a Palestinian flag, these men allegedly shouted anti-Semitic abuse. To be fair, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign condemned the motorcade incident. On Sunday, an Essex rabbi, Rabbi Rafi Goodwin, was attacked and hospitalised outside his synagogue in Chigwell. According to the Evening Standard, his two attackers have been arrested: 

"Two men have been arrested on suspicion of GBH with intent after a rabbi was attacked in Essex. The men, 18 and 25, are being questioned on suspicion of the assault in Chigwell."

Welcome as these arrests are, they are merely part of a recent rise in anti-Semitic hate crime. According to a separate BBC report, there has been a surge in anti-Semitic incidents: 

"The Community Security Trust said there had been a fivefold increase in reports of anti-Semitic incidents since the recent escalation in tensions between Israel and Palestinians. Between 8 May and 17 May the charity recorded 86 anti-Semitic incidents, up from 16 in the previous 10 days."

I am sure the extreme Right here in the UK are pondering whether or not to join in with such endeavours, but they have a problem: they hate both sides already. They are notoriously and fanatically anti-Semitic, but are violently anti-Muslim also. We might even see the avowedly neo-Nazi groups turning out to help the Palestinians and the more anti-Muslim groups such as the remnants of the English Defence League doing the same for the pro-Israeli side. What a punch-up that will be!

Another common factor to both sides is their capacity for alienating public opinion worldwide. Israel does not seem to realise that bombing Palestinian families out of their homes does not win friends and influence people. The IDF say that they are trying to hit Hamas fighters without realising that every Hamas or civilian death creates more Hamas fighters and draws more international opprobrium. Hamas, yet again, have a propaganda victory.

Palestinians do not help themselves by firing rockets at Israel or by staging aggressive demonstrations. The main London protest rally on Sunday, supposedly attended by 130, 000 people (oh, yeah) saw nine police officers injured. The equivalent Manchester march only attracted several hundred, but turned nasty on several occasions. There was at least one scuffle in the Arndale Centre between demonstrators and members of the public that was filmed by MSN News. The pro-Palestinians targeted what they saw as pro-Israeli businesses. They protested ineffectually for a short while outside Barclays Bank in Market Street (the bank was closed). They then went on to picket Tesco, which, fortunately for staff, put up its shutters. The Manchester Evening News commented: 

"The march eventually came to a pause at the corner of Cross Street and Market Street, where city centre councillor Pat Karney tried to speak to the protesters.
But he was booed off as he attempted to ask them not to intimidate shop workers..."

Not a very edifying performance by the demonstrators.

To conclude, I think we can discern the unthinkable conclusion: there is no solution acceptable to both sides in the Israel/Palestine dispute. The only way to ensure an end to armed conflict would be one imposed by the United Nations, which would be unacceptable to both sides and, as in Bosnia, completely useless.