I have seen, and I presume lots of you have, “The Pianist”. This is story of a Polish Jew pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, based upon his autobiography, who witnessed the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939. Subsequently with the invasion, living conditions of Jews living in Poland deteriorated. They faced hunger, humiliation, poverty and in the end extermination by the hand of SS organization. When the family of Szpilman was being rounded up for deportation to Treblinka, Szpilman saw his brother reading “The Merchant of Venice”. Szpilman asked him to read aloud. On which he read the famous sentences from the play:
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? If you wrong us, do we not revenge?”
These sentences in fact describe the inner feelings of any other person experiencing that kind of torment and misery. The irony of the fact is that the play narrates to the agony and sadism being faced by Antonio from the hands of rich Jew moneylender, Shylock. The movie moves on to the period of 1941-1943 when underground resistance movements were developed in around one-fourth of all ghettos in Nazi occupied Eastern Europe. Thousands were already died inside those ghettos because of starvation and disease. The goals of these resistance movements was to breakout of those ghettos and join their brothers fighting against the Nazi occupation, an act neither considered a crime nor terrorism those days. The single largest uprising was in the ghetto of Warsaw in the spring of 1943. Hundred of Jews fought with whatever they could get hold of; rifles pistols and revolvers. These firearms of little import had been “smuggled” into the ghetto by Armia Krajova and Gwardia Ludowa (Polish organizations), though they knew from the beginning that the defeat was certain. The members of Å»ydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Å»OB) and Å»ydowski ZwiÄ…zek Wojskowy (Å»ZW), the Jewish resistance movements took control of the ghetto. They built fighting posts and killed anyone who collaborated with Germans. The insurgents relied mainly on IED’s and incendiary bottles. In the retaliatory and defensive (from the perspective of Nazi Germany) strikes, Nazi forces initially shelled and later on burned the ghetto to force out the resistance movement. A total of 13,000 Jews were killed in “collateral damage” or because the resistance movement used them as human shields, knowing the fact that any act of provocation from the militants would cause the civilians (including large number of women and children) to face the might of Nazi forces. According to official Nazi version, the German losses stood at 16 killed in action with 86 wounded. The incinerated houses were completely razed and Warsaw concentration camp was built in their place, after the fighting was officially over on May 16, 1943. I will discuss the fate of Nazi commanders and collaborators in the end of the article.
What we are witnessing today is replay of same drama with obvious replacement of characters. The land is Palestine now instead of Poland. ZOB and ZZW are replaced with HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, while the Ghetto is Gaza in place of Warsaw. The role of Armia Krajova and GL is being played by Iran and Syria. Mahmood Abbas is Dr Alfred Nossig including Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullahs (read plural).
On 9th December, 2008, Prof Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur for Human Rights in Occupied Palestinian territories wrote an article on Gaza blockade titled “Gaza: Silence is not an option”. In this article he wrote: “Such a policy of collective punishment, initiated by Israel to punish Gazans for political developments within the Gaza strip, constitutes a continuing flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law as laid down in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention…..The UN is obligated to respond under these conditions. Some governments of the world are complicit by continuing their support politically and economically for Israel’s punitive approach….. At the very least, an urgent effort should be made at the United Nations to implement the agreed norm of a ‘responsibility to protect’ a civilian population being collectively punished by policies that amount to a Crime Against Humanity……it would seem mandatory for the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law.” During an interview with “Democracy Now” he further said that the kind of collective punishment being imposed on Gaza resembles collective punishment that was imposed by Nazis and if the situation persists, it could produce Holocaust. He stressed that 46% of Gazan children are suffering from acute anemia. In his words “a very stark reality”. He is maintaining same position since a quiet few years as he insisted in another article of him dated June 29, 2007, titled “Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust” opened with William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming,
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
He wrote and I quote “it is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust.’” On 15th of December, 2008, he was denied entry into Israel on charges of legitimizing HAMAS resistance and drawing shameful comparisons to the Holocaust. It is in spite of the fact that it is responsibility and legal obligation of a UN member state to cooperate with UN in discharging its official responsibilities.
Now coming back to the topic, It is interesting to note that much of international media tried to put blame on HAMAS for the Gaza massacre because of one simple reason; the continued barrage of rocket fires on Israel. Even few liberal religious scholars here in Pakistan tried to put it like that. What these ‘enlightened’ doesn’t know is that till the start of this recent massacre by Israeli Defense Forces on 27th Dec 2008, not even a single Israeli was killed by any HAMAS rocket attacks. Furthermore HAMAS proposed a 10 years truce to Israel back in Jan 2004, put forwarded by Mr. Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi. The same offer was presented again in April 2008 by Khaled Meshal, the chief of HAMAS political wing, if Israel goes back to pre-1967 position. Jimmy Carter who was in Jerusalem at that time and met with HAMAS officials verified this and stated that HAMAS is prepared to accept the right of Israel to live in peace within 1967 borders. But Israel and US were unimpressed by the offer. On 19th June, 2008, Egypt mediated a six month truce between HAMAS and Israel. According to the terms of that truce Israel had to ease its blockade of and stop its incursion into Gaza while HAMAS to stop rocket attacks on Southern Israel. After the truce HAMAS started dismantling their rockets and Islamic Jihad confirmed its commitment with the truce. This ceasefire was held by the Palestinian resistance, despite of the fact that Israel breached its commitment by not easing restrictions on Gaza, till November 4 last year when in complete violation of the terms this agreement Israel attacked Gaza and killed 6 people. Guardian reported the incident as “Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen”. Facing such situation, resistance groups fired back with barrages of rocket with no casualties on Israeli side. HAMAS said that there won’t be any renewal of truce till Israel commits herself to all of its conditions. Israel took this bold and courageous position from the resistance movement as an insult and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan felt the same. The guilty and shame for not being able to defend Arab lands in all past wars inspired them to conspire with Israel against Palestinians. That guilt was nurturing in their hearts and mind since Hizbollah’s victory against Israel in war of summer 2006. That war made Syed Hasan Nasrullah a hero on the streets of Arab world. Since then these three plus some other gulf countries agreed that they would do everything to contain non-state actors (read Hizbollah and HAMAS). They felt such Jihadi movements with broad public and mass supports as a threat to their monarchies, dictatorial regimes and future goals. That’s why two days before the invasion Israel’s foreign minister Tzipi Livni visited Cairo and got approval from Hosni Mubarak for rapid surgical strikes against HAMAS that would overthrow them and replaced with a corrupt non-representative Fatah of Mahmood Abbas. The plan was to conclude the operation in three days with New Year sun dawning on news faces at helm in Gaza. Around 400 armed men of Palestinian security forces loyal to Fatah turned up in Sinai under the command of Mohammad Dahlan to takeover Gaza expecting a catwalk into Gaza by IDF. But what turned out was an epic of chivalry and courage by HAMAS. Sustaining and enduring more than 3 weeks of continued air and ground strikes that includes indiscriminate usage of phosphorus bombs (prohibited by International conventions) against the women and children of Gaza by Israel mighty army and continuing their rocket attacks on Israel was least expected if seen in comparative terms of military strength. But HAMAS made it possible just as Hizbollah did it in 2006, but with one difference; there was no Syria to help. It was not an accident when last year November, in New York Israeli delegates including Shimon Peres and Tzipi Livni were invited by and special guests of King Abdullah, custodian of two holy mosques, at the Inter-Faith conference, held under the auspices of Kingdom. Shimon Peres reciprocated this Saudi benevolence by directly addressing King Abdullah and praising his leadership and vision. But there were dramatic developments as well. As expected, Arab League couldn’t convene a summit on the Gaza carnage because of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and UAE leaning towards Israeli position. But still we were able to see something in Doha where 13 out of 22 Arab league members attended an emergency conference called by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa in clear opposition to Saudi and Egyptian overtures towards Israel. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad also attended the meeting. These were strong signals to Saudi Arabia and Israel with US at back end. And that yielded. With US suddenly reversed its course and Condoleza Rice drafted a resolution urging immediate ceasefire, though abstaining in the end in face of Ehud Olmert call to former president Bush. You may be surprised to hear what caused US to let that resolution go unopposed was fear of US and other European embassies in the region being seized over by angry mobs of Arab streets, as stated by Zalmay Khalilzad. On the other hand Prince Turki al-Faisal stated in an op-ed in Financial Times that US-Saudi relationship is at risk and yet the more amazing comments followed and I quote:
“Last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran wrote a letter to King Abdullah, explicitly recognising Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Arab and Muslim worlds and calling on him to take a more confrontational role over “this obvious atrocity and killing of your own children” in Gaza. The communiqué is significant because the de facto recognition of the kingdom’s primacy from one of its most ardent foes reveals the extent that the war has united an entire region, both Shia and Sunni. Further, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s call for Saudi Arabia to lead a jihad against Israel would, if pursued, create unprecedented chaos and bloodshed in the region.
So far, the kingdom has resisted these calls, but every day this restraint becomes more difficult to maintain. When Israel deliberately kills Palestinians, appropriates their lands, destroys their homes, uproots their farms and imposes an inhuman blockade on them; and as the world laments once again the suffering of the Palestinians, people of conscience from every corner of the world are clamouring for action. Eventually, the kingdom will not be able to prevent its citizens from joining the worldwide revolt against Israel.”
Anyone can judge the gravity of these sentences emanating from none other than former Saudi Intelligence chief. And last but not the least the recent happening at Davos between Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli President. Turkey is one of Muslim majority country which recognizes Israel and now its PM is demanding Israeli expulsion from UN. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the Israeli President directly by saying that Israel knows very well how to kill civilians. So cracks are apparent all over the Middle East. It will continue to become more apparent as the time passes on where we will be witnessing new shifts and alliances. The future is bright. Democratic and popular forces are winning over retrogressive and dictatorial ones. The way Israel handled this war once again exposed and revealed her weaknesses and fault lines, which will be exploited more aggressively in future.
And now in the end, as I promised I will share the end of perpetrators and collaborators of the crimes committed at Warsaw ghetto. Burkl was assassinated by Polish resistance in Oct 1943. Same month Von Sammern-Frankenegg was killed in an ambush in Croatia. Kruger committed suicide in May 1945. Stroop was convicted of war crimes and hanged in Poland, in 1952. Hahn died in Prison in 1986. Dr. Alfred Nossig was killed by ZOB during the resistance. On the other hand the so called bandits of ZOB are still being remembered with reverence and dignity throughout the civilized world. And it is again no coincidence that respected and prominent personalities like Gerald Kaufman, George Galloway and Brian Eno have compared the resistance fighter of Gaza with the Jewish resistance of Warsaw Ghetto insurgency.
Tags: palestine politics, palestine solidarity movement