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Hole in a Wall | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Two important studies concerning the preparations for the war on Iraq were released in the West. In the meantime, the massacres against armless Palestinians continued under the policy of ethnic cleansing which was adopted by the global Zionist movement since the beginning of its occupation of Palestine.

The first study, “Flimsy arguments”, is American released by two nonprofit American organizations. According to this study, President George Bush and senior officials in his administration made hundreds of “false statements” about the threats posed by Iraq to the American national security, in the two years following September 11, 2001 attacks. Authors of the study, who are members in the Center for Public Integrity and in the Fund for Independence in Journalism said “a comprehensive study indicates that these false statements constructed an important part of an organized campaign that raised the public opinion and led the nation to war on the basis of completely erroneous information”. Bush and senior officials in the American administration including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser (then) Condoleezza Rice, and Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, made 935 false statements about “the danger posed by Saddam Husein on the American National Security” during those two years.

The Second Study is British, published in the weekly supplements of the Guardian newspaper. It is taken from a book by the famous British journalist Jonathan Steel, in which he clarifies how the British wade into the war “without any information, any preparations, any clue about the reasons of this war and the consequences which may ensue of it”. George Joffe, an Arabist from Cambridge University, recalls when Prime Minister, Tony Blair, asked him and other experts, to adduce their opinion about waging the war on Iraq, how the Prime Minister talked (then) only about Saddam without paying any attention to what he was told about Iraq and its people. Joffe says that he got the impression of “someone with a very shallow mind, who’s not interested in issues other than the personalities of the top people, no interest in social forces, political trends, etc”. (the Guardian – weekly supplement, 21/1/200)

Observers of the horrible massacres, the brutal siege, and the collective punishment, to which the Palestinian people are being exposed, would immediately notice the same policy of deception and fraud that is practiced by the forces of democracy on the people of Palestine. This is obvious in the muddling headlines and articles, published in both Arab and Western newspapers, which aid Israel in its ongoing campaign of genocide and displacement against the Palestinian People. The ensuing misuse of language in the media could be very much noticed in most of what has been published about Gaza; the Herald Tribune wrote on Wednesday 16/1/2008 “18 were killed when fighting flared in Gaza, attack killed Hamas leader”. The article did not mention that the 18 Palestinians were killed by Israel who takes over their land, sky, air and waters, rather it talked about the responsibility of Hamas, and it justified the Israeli attack as being a response to the rockets of Hamas. In this way operates the delusive tool of media in collusion with the rulers of occupation and settlement, it alters the rockets of Hamas to substitute for the key reason of the struggle in the Middle East, which is the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Ending the resistance of the Palestinian people and surrendering them to the Zionist colonialism are the main aim of Israel.

When Ehud Olmert announced that “the residents of Gaza can walk if they don’t have gasoline for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that won’t let people in the south of Israel live in safety”, all women of Gaza broke through to Rafah. In the following day and despite of the plenty of difficulties they faced, hundreds of Palestinian children, women and men rushed to blow up the concrete border wall between the two parts of Rafah, breaking the barrier of oppression and starvation, facing the Zionist racism and astounding the whole world, enemies and friends. The Jewish writer, Jeff Halber, wrote in his article (Hole in the Wall: Power to the Palestinian People) “the Palestinians represent far more than just themselves. Their refusal to submit to the dictates of governments reflects the desire of billions of oppressed people for identity, freedom, and a decent life. In this the Palestinians stand at the forefront of peoples’ insistence everywhere that their rights and fundamental values as human beings be respected by governments”.

Would writers ever stop importing their language from the lexicon of the western deception and start using a language that fairly describes the strife of the Palestinians with their admirable human merits? Would they ever honestly write about the brutal crimes and massacres that Israel is committing every day in Palestine? Palestine and its people will always remain the symbol that provides us with the pulse of life. History shall never forget those who committed crimes against Palestinians, they are the leaders and the engines of terrorism. These stories of heroism shall remain as candles to illuminate the way for new generations towards honor, esteem and noble civilization.