Gaza in crisis : reflections on Israel's war against the Palestinians

289 Pages·2013·0.99 MB·English

by  Noam Chomsky

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“This sober and unflinching analysis should be read and reckoned with by anyone con-
NOAM CHOMSKY & ILAN PAPPÉ
cerned with practicable change in the long-suffering region.” —Publishers Weekly
G GAZA IN CRISIS
“Both authors perform fiercely accurate deconstructions of official rhetoric.” —Guardian A
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Israel’s Operation Cast Lead was described by a UN fact-finding mission (the Gold-
I REFLECTIONS ON THE U.S.-ISRAELI WAR ON THE PALESTINIANS
stone report) as “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humil- N
iate and terrorize a civilian population.” The winter 2008–09 assault claimed the
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lives of 1,400 Palestinians and thrust the crisis in Gaza into the center of the debate
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about the Israel/Palestine conflict.
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REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION
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The crippling siege continues to block access to construction materials desperately
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needed to rebuild in the wake of the Israeli attack and prevents people from leaving S
the Strip even for treatment of life-threatening illnesses. With the constant humil-
iation of living a life punctuated by regular military incursions and ubiquitous
checkpoints, the people of Gaza live in an area that has come to be known as the N
world’s largest open-air prison. O
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Following Israel’s naval attack on the Freedom Flotilla—a group of vessels carrying
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relief supplies and aiming to break the unbearable siege—international observers H
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are increasingly questioning the logic of Israeli military aggression, and worldwide M
public support for Palestine is growing. S
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In Gaza in Crisis, Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, two of the conflict’s most in- &
sightful critical commentators, survey the fallout from Israel’s conduct in Gaza and I
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place it into the context of Israel’s long-standing occupation of Palestine. A
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NOAM CHOMSKYhas published numerous groundbreaking studies in global poli- P
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tics, history, and linguistics. Among his recent books are On Western Terrorismand
Hopes and Prospects.
ILAN PAPPÉis a professor of history at the University of Exeter and author of The
Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
ISBN: 978-1-60846-331-2 $16.95
www.haymarketbooks.org
Current Affairs / Middle East
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GAZA IN CRISIS
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GAZA IN CRISIS
REFLECTIONS ON ISRAEL’S WAR
AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS
ILAN PAPPÉ AND NOAM CHOMSKY
EDITED BY FRANK BARAT
Haymarket Books
Chicago, Illinois
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© 2010 Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé
First published by Haymarket Books in 2010
This edition published by Haymarket Books in 2013
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org
[email protected]
ISBN: 978-160846-331-2
Trade distribution:
In the U.S., Consortium Book Sales, www.cbsd.com
In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca
In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com
In Australia, Palgrave MacMillan, www.palgravemacmillan.com.au
All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, www.pgw.com
Cover design by Josh On. Cover photo of a Palestinian woman standing on the
rubble of her home in the aftermath of Israeli bombing in January 2009 by Patrick
Baz/AFP/Getty Images.
This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and
the Wallace Global Fund.
Printed in Canada by union labor.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION BY FRANK BARAT 1
1. THE TEN MYTHOLOGIES OF ISRAEL
ILAN PAPPÉ 5
2. THE FATE OF PALESTINE: AN INTERVIEW WITH
NOAM CHOMSKY (2007) 15
3. CLUSTERS OF HISTORY: U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN
THE PALESTINE QUESTION
ILAN PAPPÉ 29
4. STATE OF DENIAL: THE NAKBAH IN
ISRAELI HISTORY AND TODAY
ILAN PAPPÉ 65
5. “EXTERMINATE ALL THE BRUTES”: GAZA 2009
NOAM CHOMSKY 87
6. BLUEPRINT FOR A ONE-STATE MOVEMENT:
A TROUBLED HISTORY
ILAN PAPPÉ 133
7. REFRAMING THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT:
“ISRAEL IS NOT A DEMOCRACY”
ILAN PAPPÉ 153
8. THE GHETTOIZATION OF PALESTINE: A DIALOGUE WITH
ILAN PAPPÉANDNOAM CHOMSKY 163
9. THE KILLING FIELDS OF GAZA, 2004–2009
ILAN PAPPÉ 189
10. A MIDDLE EAST PEACE THAT COULD HAPPEN
(BUT WON’T)
NOAM CHOMSKY 213
11. INTERVIEW WITH NOAM CHOMSKY
FRANK BARAT 227
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 245
A NOTE ON THE TEXT 247
NOTES 249
INDEX 269
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Dedicated to
Juliano Mer Khamis
(1958–2011)
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INTRODUCTION
When Noam Chomsky first answered my email in December 2005, I
would never have imagined that five years later I would be working
on a book with him. Since then, Chomsky has continued to reply to
my emails and questions and we have slowly developed a steady
“written” relationship.
A few years after that first email, thinking about how to raise
awareness and reach a wider audience on the Palestine question, I
asked him if he would agree to an interview. He did, and a few
months later sent me his answers, which as usual were more detailed
and researched than I could have expected.
The interview was well received and published on various Web
sites and in periodicals, prompting me to consider the format an ex-
cellent way to inform and educate a public that too often has to rely
on information from a corporate and profit-driven media system.
The idea of another interview slowly made its way into my head,
but this time I wanted something different, something more inter-
active.
I decided to ask the renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappé if he
would participate in a joint interview/dialogue with Professor
Chomsky. Pappé agreed and during the next few months I worked
with both of them on various questions and key topics of what is
usually referred to as the “Israel-Palestine conflict.”
1
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2 GAZA IN CRISIS
When that interview came out, probably because it was the first
Chomsky-Pappé interview ever conducted, it appeared in even more
publications and Web sites than the first one and came to the atten-
tion of a Belgian publisher, Gilles Martin, who consequently pub-
lished the interview as a booklet entitled Le Champ du Possible
(Aden Editions, November 2008).
Then came an offer to create an English version of that booklet.
But it needed more work. I started to think about what type of book
I wanted, what its goal and its substance would be. The last thing I
wanted was to publish a book merely for the sake of it. Hundreds of
books on the “Israel-Palestine conflict” already exist, some excep-
tional, so how would this one be different?
To answer this, I asked myself: “Why has this ‘conflict’ lasted for
so long, who can stop it, and how?” Ignorance, the people, and by
popular resistance and a refusal to remain silent were the first an-
swers that came to mind. I sincerely believe that what is happening
in Palestine would never have lasted this long if the public were
properly informed about what has really taking place in this part of
the Middle East.
Noam, Ilan, and I worked again on the dialogue, now titled “The
Ghettoization of Palestine,” gave it more insight, edited some ques-
tions, and added new ones. Ilan additionally contributed several ar-
ticles addressing various crucial aspects of the Israel-Palestine
question and Noam reworked his astonishing piece “‘Exterminate
All the Brutes’: Gaza 2009.”
Combining interviews and essays was important. On one hand, the
interactive joint interview/dialogue form is a means to express and
explore researched analysis and opinions in an accessible way. It also
offers a more flexible and lively vehicle to share expert knowledge.
The joint interview with two of the most respected people in this field
of study, one an American professor and one an Israeli historian,
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INTRODUCTION 3
could fill in gaps of understanding and reach a wider audience. Both
interviews address multiple topics related to the Israel-Palestine ques-
tion as well as the recent Israeli Army attack on the “Freedom Flotilla”
and, I hope, allow readers to draw their own conclusions from two
compatible yet different views. On the other hand, the solely authored
essays give the book a more in-depth analysis, scrutinizing specific
periods and events in history in a new light, challenging even well-
versed readers in the process. Selected articles by Ilan Pappé give the
necessary historical background that is key to understanding Pales-
tine today.
In this second edition, we have added a very important piece by
Ilan called “The Ten Mythologies of Israel.” Ilan wrote this exclusive
piece for the New York session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine,
in which he testified as a witness. He addresses key points in this
piece and starts to reframe the Palestine question from a Palestinian
point of view, dismantling Israeli early propaganda attempts such as
the myth of “a land without people for a people without a land.” This
piece sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the book.
In chapters two and three, Ilan Pappé traces the historical devel-
opment of U.S. involvement in the question of Palestine and the
importance of Nakbah (“catastrophe” in Arabic) denial for Israel.
Understanding the Nakbah is crucial to understanding Palestinian-
Israeli history. Chapter four is the updated and superb essay “‘Exter-
minate All the Brutes’: Gaza 2009” by Chomsky. This groundbreaking
piece focuses primarily on the December 2008–January 2009 Israeli
assault on Gaza, but also gives a thorough analysis of Israel’s relations
with the United States and Europe and the role of social and military
resistance in Arab countries.
We return to Pappé in chapters six through nine, where he charts
the progress of the movement for one state; puts the idea of a “Jewish
and democratic state” into context and perspective in a new piece