To fully understand the genocide taking place in the Gaza Strip, we need to look at how Israel has strategically distanced itself from any responsibility for the fate of the Palestinian refugees. Israel has consistently used lies and fabrications to lay the blame for the Palestinian refugees on others.
Initially, it was the fault of the “Arabs” for promising the Palestinians they could leave while the Arab armies kicked the Jews out of Palestine, after which they would be able to return. The Palestinians fell for this, so the Zionist story goes, and now it is too bad for them they cannot return. Even if this was true, it does not explain why, from the end of 1947, the Zionist terror groups were violently displacing Palestinians, nor does it explain why the refugees were not permitted to return.
Following the creation of the State of Israel, the Gaza Strip, parts of the West Bank and large areas within the countries that border Palestine became homes to refugee camps. From that point on, Israel claimed that it was the responsibility of the host countries to solve the refugee crisis by integrating Palestinians. In other words, it was not the responsibility of the party that committed the crime of ethnic cleansing but of the countries that were forced to host them.
Because Israel occupied Gaza, it is faced with a problem it cannot solve. Doing the only thing that makes sense and allowing the refugees to return to their land and their homes is out of the question because Israel is a genocidal racist regime. Leaving Gaza as it is isn’t working either, so killing as many Palestinians in Gaza as possible and blaming it on them has been the policy for decades, and it has been successful.
Since the early 1950s, when the Gaza Strip was created, Israeli forces have been committing massacres there and then blaming it on the Palestinians, claiming they present an existential threat. This strategy of killing has been so successful that even now, in 2024, the world is willing to allow Israel to commit acts of genocide uninterrupted.
Furthermore, as these acts of genocide take place, Israel has succeeded in accomplishing yet another facet of its strategy to undermine the rights of the Palestinian refugees. It managed to get the world to reduce its support of UNRWA. The resources that were once available to UNRWA were barely enough to provide the services that its mandate demands. Now, the need is greater than ever, and many of the resources have dried up thanks to Israel’s undermining of the organization.
Last but not least, Israel and its allies are accusing Egypt and even Jordan of not “taking” any of the survivors of the genocide in Gaza. It is these countries, say the Zionists, who should take the Palestinians and save them. Once again, the responsibility is shifted from the perpetrators of the crimes to parties that have nothing to do with it, while Israel enjoys diplomatic cover and material support that allows it to continue the genocide in Gaza and the brutal oppression throughout all parts of Palestine.
Miko Peled is a MintPress News contributing writer, published author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. His latest books are”The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”
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