Mondoweiss, May 15, 2021

A Palestinian woman and child pass through an Israeli military checkpoint “protecting” settlers in Hebron. [photo: T Suárez]

3. Jews can reclaim property allegedly owned pre-1948. Only Jews.
Israel claims that land in Sheikh Jarrah had belonged to Jews before 1948, and that they therefore have the right to repossess it. But under Israeli law, only Jews have this right; the non-Jews whose homes Israeli settlers commandeer, are denied the same right.

[...] 4. The Israeli siege of Gaza began in 1948, not after the election of Hamas in 2006 .
The news invariably invokes “Hamas” and “rockets” to explain the Israeli siege and massacres. No: Although Israel heightened its blockade after the rise of Hamas, the siege began in 1948 and has continued unabated since. Many of the people Israel ethnically cleansed in 1948 ended up in Gaza, facing starvation, cold, and disease in the suddenly overpopulated land. Since they are not Jewish, those who tried to go home were often shot dead on sight, and nothing has changed since: people in Gaza are now shot dead for a merely symbolic attempt to approach the perimeter “fence” enclosing the ghetto [...]

5. The Palestinian Authority is not an autonomous Palestinian “government”.
The media — correctly — criticise the Palestinian Authority for its impotence and corruption, but falsely suggest that it is the freely-elected representative of the Palestinians. The PA was put in place by Israeli military force against the results of the 2006 election, and it has no power whatsoever except as “allowed” by Israel. It serves Israel by outsourcing the day-to-day affairs — and the repression — of the Palestinians; and Israel needs the facade of a Palestinian “government” to explain why non-Jews in the West Bank cannot vote in Israeli elections.