Jos vain mahdollista, auttakaa rikollisen kommareiden aikaisen ja sieltä alkuunsa saaneen Israelin vastaisen propagandan leviämisen pysähtymistä. Lännessä typerimmät ja moralittomat ihmiset yhä jatkavat sen leviämästä erityisesti vasemmistoliitolaisten piirissä, tämän nähtiin mielenosoituksissa ympäri syvistynyttä maailmaa.
Oman kokemuksen kautta voin vain todeta että nämä mieliosoituksiin osallistuvat ja niitä tukevat ihmiset ovat yhtä agressiviset kun islamistit ja putinia tukevat rikolliset.
Tässä alla on Olga Kromerin ystävien avulla käännetty englanninkielinen teksti:
For your knowledge. Please share
Gaza.
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A brief history lesson. All information provided is confirmed by primary sources.
By Olga Kromer ( OM Kromer )
Myth one: Israel occupied Gaza.
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The history of Gaza spans 4,000 years. Gaza has been governed, destroyed, and inhabited by various dynasties, empires, and peoples. Originally a Canaanite (proto Hebrew) settlement, it spent around 350 years under Egyptian control before being conquered by the Philistines and becoming one of their major cities. Many Arabs claim to be descendants of the Philistines, but the Philistines were not Semitic, so this is a falsehood. They were a part of so called Sea people, a seafaring conglomeration of various races and etnicities living around the Medditerranian sea. It was in Gaza, according to the Book of Judges, that the Jewish strongman Samson brought down the Philistine palace and died under the rubble.
Gaza was ruled by the Assyrians, Persians, and Nabateans. Alexander the Great also reached it. After a bloody siege in which most of the inhabitants were killed, he took the city and turned Gaza into a center of Hellenistic education and philosophy. Gaza gradually became inhabited by Bedouins from the desert and Greeks, soldiers and merchants. After Alexander's death, two kingdoms, successors of the great Alexander, the Seleucids from Syria and the Ptolemies from Egypt, fought for Gaza. In 96 BCE, Gaza was besieged and captured by the Jewish Hasmonean dynasty.
When the Romans came to Judea, Pompey the Great (the one who, along with Crassus, defeated Spartacus) took it from the Jewish king Alexander Jannaeus. Under the Romans, Gaza prospered, many emperors patronized it. The city was governed by a senate of 500 members, including Greeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, and Nabateans.
Under King Herod the Great, Gaza again became a vassal of Judea. By that time, the majority of its inhabitants were Romans and Greeks. In the first century, during the Jewish uprising against the Romans, it was destroyed once more. After the defeat of the rebellion in 132 CE, the Romans expelled a significant number of Jews from the region and renamed the province of Judea to "Syria Palaestina" to erase the memory of Jewish presence in this area. This is where the name Palestine originated.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Gaza came under the control of the Byzantine Empire. St. Porphyry of Gaza converted Gaza to Christianity in the late 4th century, destroying the famous shrine of the god Marnas that was famous throughout the Roman Empire.
Two hundred years later, Gaza was conquered by the Muslim general Amr ibn al-As, and most of its residents were compelled to embrace Islam. Crusaders briefly took control of Gaza from the Arab Fatimid dynasty in the year 1100, but they were later expelled by Saladin. By the end of the 13th century, Gaza was in the hands of the Mamluks and became the capital of a province that extended from the Sinai Peninsula to the Syrian border. In the 16th century, Gaza came under the rule of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire for a long period of 400 years.
In 1832, Gaza's territory was conquered for eight years by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of the Vice-King of Egypt, Muhammad Ali. Egyptians implemented some European-style reforms, which sparked resistance from Arabs and uprisings in most of the country's cities. All uprisings were forcefully suppressed. During this period, extensive research in the field of biblical geography and archaeology was conducted. It is from these studies that we know about small Jewish communities persisted in and around Gaza during this time. Jewish presence in Gaza ended in 2005 when Israel voluntarily withdrew from the area.
In 1917, during World War I, the Ottoman Empire dissolved, and the League of Nations (the predecessor of the UN) issued a mandate for British administration to govern Gaza. These were relatively good times, as the British, with their famous punctuality, set about establishing order. In 1948, following UN Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs, Arabs initiated a war, and Gaza came under the control of Egypt.
In 1967, Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula were captured by Israel during the Six-Day War. When Israel signed a peace agreement with Egypt in 1978, the Sinai Peninsula was returned, but the Egyptians did not show much interest in Gaza. Unfortunately, during the First Intifada (a wave of Arab attacks against Israel, Gaza became a center of political activity and a major headache. In accordance with the Oslo Accords of 1993, it was placed under the direct control of the Palestinian Authority.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, leaving Palestinians flourishing farmlands, beautiful beaches, and a rich fishing zone. Gaza could become a new Singapore. However, in 2007, Hamas won the elections in Gaza and began sowing hatred on an unprecedented scale. They did not create another Singapore; instead, they burned down farms and replaced them with rocket launchers, leading to attacks on the border areas of Israel. In 2007, after three weeks of massive rocket attacks on civilian populations, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza (more on the blockade below). Periodically, in response to rocket attacks and the deaths of peaceful Israelis, including children, Israel conducted military operations to eliminate militants and rocket launch sites.
And then came October 7, 2023. 1,600 Israelis killed, raped, stabbed, burned, tortured. 200 hostages, the youngest of whom was TWO years old. Eighteen years after Israel VOLUNTARILY left Gaza. That's the nature of the occupation and the response to it.
Myth two: Gaza is impoverished and suffering.
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Testimony from the French journalist Adrienne Jom, dated June 6, 2010:
"In the city of Gaza, stores are overflowing with a variety of goods. Market stalls are filled with vegetables and fruits. Electrical appliance stores sell large refrigerators, and mobile phone shops offer the latest phone models. Computers, PlayStations, toys, elegant wedding dresses, medicines, spices – nothing indicates any crisis, let alone a humanitarian one."
Testimony from Norwegian journalist Steffen Jensen (not a great admirer of Israel):
"No shortage of vegetables, fruits, or any other food products. Tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, watermelons, potatoes – piles of these products on the shelves. I must admit I was a bit surprised because when I call my Palestinian friends in Gaza, they tell me about problems and shortages. The first woman we spoke to at the market confirmed this strange, contradictory negative stereotype:
"We have nothing," she said. "We need everything! Food, drinks... everything!"
She described an apocalyptic scenario while standing among mountains of vegetables, fruits, eggs, poultry, and fish."
Testimony from the Deputy Director of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, Matilda Redmat (April 2011): "There is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip."
So, there is plenty of food and consumer goods in Gaza, but most of the population lacks the money to purchase them. Why? Let's delve into it.
In 2009, Gaza received $948 million of financial aid. In 2010, the U.S. and the EU contributed $413 million, and in 2011, $514 million. Contributions also came from Sweden ($47 million), the UK ($45 million), Norway ($40 million), and the Netherlands ($29 million).
Huge sums of money have been flowing into Gaza for years. In 2021, Gaza received donations totaling over $1.18 billion, and over $1.17 billion in 2022 from various countries and organizations.
Where is this money? Where are the hospitals and schools built with it, the cultivated fields, the factories producing useful items, the homes, and the roads? Where are the jobs created? They don't exist because these billions have been spent on TENS OF THOUSANDS of rockets, mines, and underground tunnels. Hospitals were not built; instead, bunkers for Hamas' military command were constructed. In existing hospitals, schools, and residential buildings, rocket launchers were placed. After Israel destroyed these tunnels and bunkers, they were rebuilt.
The money that didn't go into wars went into the pockets of Hamas leaders. Journalist Palki Sharma Upadhyay (India) wrote in 2021:
"Hamas leaders, including the head of the political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, have long left the Gaza Strip and are residing in various countries worldwide, including Turkey, Qatar, and Lebanon. They live in posh apartments in Beirut, Doha, and Istanbul, wear expensive suits, fly on private planes, and their children are involved in elite businesses. One of Haniyeh's sons, Maaz, is in the real estate business in Turkey, while another, Abdel Salam, officially the chairman of the Palestinian Youth Council, enjoys lavish entertainment in Turkey, spending enormous amounts of money".
According to Globes (2014), Ismail Haniyeh's net worth is estimated at $4 billion. Most of his assets are registered in the name of his son-in-law, Nabil. Khaled Mashal, another Hamas leader, has a net worth of $5 billion, and Musa Abu Marzouk has a net worth of $3 billion. Not bad for the children of impoverished Palestinian refugees who swore to dedicate their lives to the Palestinian cause, to struggle. The struggle turned out to be a highly profitable business.
So, the poverty and unemployment in Gaza are not a result of the Israeli blockade but rather due to the corruption and militarism of Hamas leaders.
Myth three: The Israeli blockade.
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International law does not require any country, including Israel, to keep the border open with a territory where a hostile population resides independently. No measures taken in response to enemy attacks are considered collective punishment under international law.
Throughout the so-called blockade, there has been a flow of goods, materials, and products into Gaza from Egypt, Israel, and the sea, including both contraband and humanitarian aid. Israel consistently creates humanitarian corridors. What are the materials received through these corridors used for? You guessed it - to build rockets and tunnels, to conduct children's camps where five-year-olds march with guns and chant "Death to the Jews," and where teenagers learn how to kill. Nevertheless, Israel periodically allows these materials into Gaza, permits Palestinians to enter Israeli hospitals, and allows family unification - time and time again, with the hope that its goodwill gestures will eventually be reciprocated, even though they rarely are, but still doing so to remain within the bounds of humanity.
Myth four: Hamas is fighting for the liberation of Palestine.
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Why is it necessary to liberate Palestine? To improve the lives of the Palestinian people, right? However, Hamas spends the majority of international aid not on improving the standard of living but on military needs. Why do they do this?
Because Hamas's goal is singular – to remain in power for as long as possible. During times of war, it's easier to suppress dissent, to steal, and to divert public funds into their pockets. It is also easier to erase evidences of crime. War - any war - justifies the fight against dissent, reduces the standard of living, and imposes rigid ideological constraints.
War makes any fighter significant; people who only know how to kill - what will they do if peace suddenly arrives? They cannot build, they can only destroy, so their only option is to find an enemy, to shift responsibility for all their failures to that enemy, and to continue fighting. The more casualties there are in each new conflict, the higher the level of hatred towards the "enemy" can be fueled by propaganda. This eliminates the need for even the most basic concern - not about the well-being, but just about the safety of one's own people.
Conclusions:
• The Gaza Strip NEVER belonged to an Arab country called Palestine, as such a country never existed.
• Israel COMPLETELY withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
• In 2007, Gaza residents voted for Hamas, which immediately began launching rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
• The blockade came into effect in 2007, two years after Israel left Gaza, as the frequency and intensity of Hamas rocket attacks made life in the Israeli border regions unbearable. Israel periodically opened humanitarian corridors, only to receive intensified rocket attacks in response.
• Billions of dollars were donated to the Gaza Strip but were used to purchase or manufacture weapons, build terrorist tunnels, and enrich Hamas leaders.
• From 2005, when Israel left Gaza, until 2023, more than 20,000 (!) rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at Israeli civilians.
WE DID NOT START THIS WAR! Just as we did not start the previous one, or the one before that, or the one before that, or any of the wars that they forced us to fight. But in response to the killing of children and women, in response to hostage-taking, in response to unprecedented rocket attacks that leave nowhere to run because they are fired at us from the south and the north, we should not remain silent. We cannot just endure, and complain to the United Nations. We have every right to respond as we see fit.
Bibliography:
Энциклопедия Брокгауза-Эфрона, т.6
От Ханаана до Карфагена, Ю. Циркин
Encyclopædia Britannica
Stories from Ancient Canaan, Michael D. Coogan, Mark S. Smith
History of the City of Gaza : from the earliest times to the present day, Meyer, Martin A. (Martin Abraham)
The UN Gaza Report: A Substantive Critique - An Expanded Text of Ambassador Dore Gold. Presentation During an Exchange with Justice Richard Goldstone at Brandeis University, November 5, 2009 אדמת מריבה; מציאות ודימיון בארץ ישראל, שמואל כ"ץ
*illustration from the internet
* assistance with the translation to English:
Alik Gomelsky, Irena Brodeski