Israel Can’t Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price -Gideon Levy

Israel Can’t Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price -- Gideon Levy in Haaretz

https://archive.ph/IIxEd

Haaretz

Oct 9, 2023 Israel Can’t Imprison Two Million
Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price

*By Gideon Levy*

Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance; the idea that we can do whatever we
like, that we’ll never pay the price and be punished for it. We’ll carry on
undisturbed.

We’ll arrest, kill, harass, dispossess and protect the settlers busy with
their pogroms. We'll visit Joseph’s Tomb, Othniel’s Tomb and Joshua’s Altar
in the Palestinian territories, and of course the Temple Mount – over 5,000
Jews on Sukkot alone.

We’ll fire at innocent people, take out people’s eyes and smash their
faces, expel, confiscate, rob, grab people from their beds, carry out
ethnic cleansing and of course continue with the unbelievable siege of the
Gaza Strip, and everything will be all right.

We’ll build a terrifying obstacle around Gaza – the underground wall alone
cost 3 billion shekels ($765 million) – and we’ll be safe. We’ll rely on
the geniuses of the army's 8200 cyber-intelligence unit and on the Shin Bet
security service agents who know everything. They’ll warn us in time.

We’ll transfer half an army from the Gaza border to the Hawara border in
the West Bank, only to protect far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot and the
settlers. And everything will be all right, both in Hawara and at the Erez
crossing into Gaza.

It turns out that even the world's most sophisticated and expensive
obstacle can be breached with a smoky old bulldozer when the motivation is
great. This arrogant barrier can be crossed by bicycle and moped despite
the billions poured into it and all the famous experts and fat-cat
contractors.

The Gaza Palestinians are willing to pay any price for a moment of freedom.
Will Israel learn its lesson? No.

We thought we’d continue to go down to Gaza, scatter a few crumbs in the
form of tens of thousands of Israeli work permits – always contingent on
good behavior – and still keep them in prison. We’ll make peace with Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinians will be forgotten
until they’re erased, as quite a few Israelis would like.

We’ll keep holding thousands of Palestinian prisoners, sometimes without
trial, most of them political prisoners. And we won’t agree to discuss
their release even after they've been in prison for decades.

We’ll tell them that only by force will their prisoners see freedom. We
thought we would arrogantly keep rejecting any attempt at a diplomatic
solution, only because we don’t want to deal with all that, and everything
would continue that way forever.

Once again it was proved that this isn’t how it is. A few hundred armed
Palestinians breached the barrier and invaded Israel in a way no Israeli
imagined was possible. A few hundred people proved that it’s impossible to
imprison 2 million people forever without paying a cruel price.

Just as the smoky old Palestinian bulldozer tore through the world’s
smartest barrier Saturday, it tore away at Israel’s arrogance and
complacency. And that’s also how it tore away at the idea that it’s enough
to occasionally attack Gaza with suicide drones – and sell them to half the
world – to maintain security.

On Saturday, Israel saw pictures it has never seen before. Palestinian
vehicles patrolling its cities, bike riders entering through the Gaza
gates. These pictures tear away at that arrogance. The Gaza Palestinians
have decided they’re willing to pay any price for a moment of freedom. Is
there any hope in that? No. Will Israel learn its lesson? No.

On Saturday they were already talking about wiping out entire neighborhoods
in Gaza, about occupying the Strip and punishing Gaza “as it has never been
punished before.” But Israel hasn’t stopped punishing Gaza since 1948, not
for a moment.

After 75 years of abuse, the worst possible scenario awaits it once again.
The threats of “flattening Gaza” prove only one thing: We haven’t learned a
thing. The arrogance is here to stay, even though Israel is paying a high
price once again.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears very great responsibility for what
happened, and he must pay the price, but it didn’t start with him and it
won’t end after he goes. We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli
victims, but we should also cry for Gaza.

Gaza, most of whose residents are refugees created by Israel. Gaza, which
has never known a single day of freedom.