Often than not, the Western media and research carried out seek to present peace as something that is achievable if some deranged terrorist groups are brought under control and tamed to behave. Never is there a query as to why they behave as they do, the rationale of their violence and its relevance in actually addressing the problem is ignored or politely and shrewdly glossed over. Why?
It is this absence of question
Why? that makes it possible for Global Terrorism Index to be distant from
reality, this is clearly illustrated with when the 2025 index score for Israel
with regard to impact of terrorism is 7.463 on a scale 0 to 10 and the score
index for Palestine is 4.93 [1]. It is surprising no professional thinks of
bringing it up as ethical and humane issue when there is no comparison of
impact of terror acts on Palestine from 2023 till date. This even when
according Global Terrorism index, data on terror incidents is collected for
five years and weighted average is applied and one of the reasons for the same
is because terrorism is not only the physical act of an attack, but it also has
psychological impact on a society for many years after. Yet, the pain of Palestinians
was inadequate to warranty reflection of the same on Global Terrorism Database.
For decades the issue of illegal
occupation and it being criminal violation was not considered, when at the Global
Terrorism Database includes incidents as terror act includes when there is an
attack on property. When Israel illegally takes over Palestinian land, destroys
its water sources and agricultural land, aren’t these acts of terror, such acts
were happening even before 2023 but none of these find a space in Global
Terrorism Database.
The extent of discord from
reality is striking when one considers the definition of terror and the
methodology used to calculate impact of terrorism. The definition of terrorism
is one adopted from Global Terrorism Database by University of Maryland,
terrorism is defined as “threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence
by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal
through fear coercion or intimidation. Incidents must be intentional, involve
violence and be carried out by non-state actors” [2].
The above definition has logical
fallacies, for it defines terror as “illegal force and violence either carried
out or threatened to be carried out by state or non-state actor…” at the same
time it further states within the same definition the incident must be
intentional, involve violence and be carried out by non-state actor to be
considered a terror act. The definition on terrorism has two fallacies, fallacy
of Double Standards and fallacy of Equivocation. Fallacy of double standards has
put the index or categorisation and resultant analysis faraway from reality. This
is clearly seen in case of Israel Terrorism index and that for Palestine. This
fallacy is a smart move consciously or not for the Western countries, for no
matter how many terror acts Western countries, Israel or other super powers
carry out it can not be considered a terror act. Even when powerful countries
use mercenaries, who by definition consider their assignment based on monetary
returns even then the acts of mercenaries will not be considered terror acts.
At the same time any act by Hezbollah’s military wing can be considered a
terror act, even when justice is on their side.
The same is true in case of
Hamas, Hamas was Governing Palestine after 2007, and military wing of Hamas as
been defined as a terror group. Though Hamas military wing is fighting for
justice against illegal occupation of Israel the state, yet any act of violence
by Hamas military wing will be considered terror act, and any act by Israeli
forces, be it IDF, Shin Bet, or Mossad will be considered an act of self-defence
to protect the nation.
This is the reason US President
orchestrates in style bombing of Iran, fishing boats from Venezuela while on
international waters, bombs the people on boat to smithereens and no one raises
their eyebrow. The President further threatens to take over Greenland, make
Canada part of US, threaten Nigeria, threaten South Africa stating there is an
ongoing genocide of White population in South Africa though most of land and
other resources belong to the white rather than blacks. Yet, no one dreams of
calling out President Trump for conducting war crimes and announcing it with
pride on social media.
The definition of terrorism has
the fallacy of Equivocation, as at the beginning of the definition terror act
is defined as “threat or actual use of force carried out by state or non-state
actors to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal, through fear, coercion or
intimidation” But later in the
definition the meaning of terror act as incidents to be included in Terrorism
Global Index or database is changed to “it must be intentional, involve
violence and be carried out by non-state actor”. This is giving two different
meaning to act of terrorism and in the process redesigning policy addressing
terror and ensuring double standard is perpetuated, making sure one country is
sanctioned for an act of aggression and another is rewarded with more arms for
further indiscriminate bombing. This is no recipe for Peace.
Darkness within Israel remain
unaddressed and it’s rewarded with military assets, for terror acts done:
It is the
logical fallacies that makes it possible for Israel to hide in plain sight the
massacre of 100,000 many of them children, women, elderly and civilian men.
Israel is never considered to have committed war crimes or crimes forget about
considering it liable for genocide. It is these fallacies that ensure West can ignore
the total violation of humanity, Israelis are carrying out. It is high time the
West realised this blatant criminal impunity granted for Israel is never ever
going to bring peace.
It is high time
West realised, Israel has not just carried out a genocide, it has carried out a
planned genocide. For anything done with tech has to be planned way in advance,
for it to be successfully carried out. Take the example of different instances
of small children being shot on specific spots, head, chest and stomach by
quadcopters after the children are lying immobilised after they have been under
missile attack or bombing. The narration is the same, children say they woke up
after being injured by missile or bomb attack, only to find a quadcopter right
in front of them and it began shooting when they opened their eyes. It is
important to understand; quadcopters are a kind of drone that is armed or
weaponised. But they are small and not very sturdy, it is difficult to balance
quadcopter for tasks that are complex and not part of normal. Hence, when a
quadcopter carries a payload to shoot and has to take shots at very difficult
angles, it can lose balance while manoeuvring. This means all quadcopter used
in Gaza were trained and trained to shot even at children as the profile,
stature and size is very different from adults and quadcopters needs to be given
specific instructions. This would mean the quadcopters were trained to shot
children (or targets of that body profile) way before 7th Oct 2023.
There are other instances that clearly indicate Israel carried out a planned
genocide, the question that was unclear was only when to implement!
When Israel is
allowed to be complicit and no questions are raised about how far it can use
its historical mythical claims over lands belonging to other nations, there
will never be peace in the middle east. Darkness within human beings when left
unchecked can take a free ride and lead to the decimation of humanity itself.
This is true not only about Israeli Jews, it is true about anyone. When Israeli
Jews associate their security with destruction and death of Palestine, there is
no way Israeli soldiers are going to avoid expression of darkness whenever
opportunity exists.
To present the
reality of darkness withing Israeli forces, I am using data from an interview
with Palestinian journalist Sami-al-Saai, [3] who was tortured and raped while
detained in Israel’s Megiddo Prison. This happened on 23rd Feb 2024.
His words…
“It was
difficult. It was painful. They (Israeli soldiers) were enjoying it a lot, that
was surprising. What were they enjoying-raping a human being and trying to
humiliate him”. He said he was transferred to Megiddo Prison after 19 days of
detention, everything that happened to him occurred on when he first entered
Megiddo Prison.
He said: “There
were four to six Israeli forces, they threw me on the ground my legs were also
tied and I was blindfolded. They took off my pants and pulled down the boxer
shorts. They told me to get on my knees. Then they started beating me, they
beat me all over without any red lines. I felt I was about to die”. Then I felt something was trying to enter my
rectum, it was hard…not a human being.
Unconsciously,
I tried to prevent it from entering my rectum, it was too painful, so I gave
up. I do not know what they put inside me… it was painful. Then… they began to move it around, to make
it more painful, what should I do, I do not know what to do. I was not screaming;
I was making sound as it was painful. Then someone from underneath, grabbed my
testicles and squeezed very hard, then I screamed very loud…”
The torture
continued, he wished he could die as he could not take it anymore. They were
laughing and one of soldiers said to him in Arabic “You are a journalist; we
will bring all the journalists and fuck them all”. They were having fun. He
said he endured, thinking about his family, his wife and kids, what will happen
to them if they lost him.
He said: “My
experience is a drop in the ocean. Others were subjected to much worse…
especially they who are from Gaza… They raped me with an object. Another was
raped by a dog… another a prison guard”.
Here I have
presented as verbatim, the interview Mr. Sami-al-Saai gave to MiddleEastEye. It
is to indicate how much darkness exists within mind of Israeli forces. This
happens when extreme sense of dehumanisation of another population exists, and it
takes time, years, decades, to build such feeling towards another population.
When such feeling of dehumanization exists and there is a clear sense of
impunity for any act committed on the despised population then there is limited
scope for peace. This kind mindset is hinderance to building peace. Compared to
this, disarming Hamas is least of the issue.
There is one
question I would like to ask all the nations that claim disarming Hamas is a
way to peace. Will any of you let your citizens be exposed to what Israel is
carrying out in Palestine. In case such horror did happen, will your citizens
ever trust an Israeli soldier and will they feel safe in their presence. For me
it is strange that when many are bent on disarming Hamas, the same people are
either directly arming Israel with billions worth of arms deals or ignoring the
arms transfers done by other countries.
The question is
how can there be peace, if Israel is not held accountable.
For every
Nation their own citizens are valuable, by and large, they have legal measures
in place to protect their citizens. For example, EU Charter of Fundamental
Rights, focuses on Human Dignity; Article I under Title Dignity, states “Human
Dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected.” Article 3, under
Title Dignity, focuses on Right to integrity of the person. It states “Everyone
has the right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity”. Article 4 states “No one shall be subjected to
torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” [4].
Just one
question if citizens of EU deserve human dignity and it is inviolable; if the
citizen have the right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity;
and if prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
exists. Then why is that EU is not holding Israel accountable for its
inhumanity and terror in Gaza.
Or is it that
you feel, like Israel, Palestinians are Amalek?
Molly Charles
Reference
1. Global
Terrorism Index|Countries most impacted by terrorism
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/global-terrorism-index/#/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Terrorism_index
3. Palestinian
journalist recounts rape and torture in Israeli prison @MiddleEastEye
https://youtu.be/T2eNb-0Fsbw?si=6l-jQipY7mNkpXbU
4) https://fra.europa.eu/en/eu-charter/title/titel-i-dignity
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