Palestinians amidst occupation, oppression, violence & silence

The indigenous people of Palestine, largely disempowered, betrayed by the Arab regimes and ignored by the international community, have been suffering for a long time under the global might of Zionism.

The Israeli state touted as the only democracy in the Middle East is in fact an apartheid society having illegally occupied the Palestinian lands for more than half a century virtually enslaving its Palestinian population.

Israel is literally getting away with murder, keeping Gaza as open air prison and terrorising the Palestinians in West Bank under its occupation through settler violence, almost daily armed raids into houses in Palestinians towns and villages and killing any one who resists the occupa tion as well as bulldozing their family homes.

With its super-strong armed forces, no other country in the region has the courage to challenge its hegemony, power-black mailing the Gulf states, the glass houses as they are, into submission and constantly isolating and striking at regimes it considers a threat from time to time.

The global network of the Zionist lobby, particularly in centres of power in the West ensures that Israel’s illegal occupation, attacks and spying activities are not challenged and flouts any UN based res olutions on a regular basis.

The supporters of Israel proactively targets any one who raises the issue of self determination of Palestinians, respect for their human rights and advocates for their freedom of movement and speech.

The Israel lobby does not tolerate any criticism of the Israeli state in mass media, social media, academic institutions or in public and actively monitors its critics demonising them as anti-semite. These supporters of Israel with resources for research, finance, influence in political and academic institutions have the strength to silence any one critical of Israel targeting any tweet, Facebook comment, press articles or media statement.

Every time Palestinians or a genuine critic of Israel take centre stage, the pro-Israel lobby sets out to silence them. An example of this is the latest campaign and attacks on the critically acclaimed, internationally-renowned Palestinian writers Susan Abulhawa and Mohammed El-Kurd who are participating in Adelaide Writers’ Week being held 4-9 March 2023.

Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah describes how Palestinian voices have been excluded from the coverage surrounding the invitation of the two prominent Palestinians to the Adelaide Writers’ Week, and also how Israel’s crimes against Palestinians are absent from the media storm.

“This runs deeper than allowing ‘two sides’ to comment. It constitutes a routine form of violence against a colonised people who are fighting both physical erasure in Palestine as well as from public discourse in the West. It is an erasure that dehumanises Palestinians who are never afforded the dignity of a cause; of motivation, trigger, provocation. Of a liberation struggle against a brutal colonising occupying apartheid regime and therefore a context for rage, anger, poetic artistic resistance.’’