Frequently asked questions, answers, and documentation on Gaza

Israel was built on top of Palestine through the ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians, a long-standing Zionist policy that resulted in 8 million Palestinians becoming refugees or displaced people and the rest enclosed in ghettos/bantustans (1) based on a set of myths and distortions of reality to justify colonization and plans for ethnic cleansing that began in 1948 and continue today (2).

(1) See Truth About Palestine
PalestineRemembered.com
History of the Question of Palestine
Video Nakba 101
Video how Israel was created
Occupation 101
Ilan Pappe explains

(2) Zionism at 100
The Myth of the U.N. Creation of Israel
See books by Shlomo Sand on the myths that allowed ethnic cleansing
Ben-Hur, the LA Times & a place called Palestine
Greenberg, Gary. 101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History. Sourcebooks, 2002
Whitelam, Keith W. The invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History. New York, Routledge. 1997
Nur Masalha "Palestine: A four thousand year history"; Raed, Basem. Hidden Histories: Palestine and The Eastern Mediterranean. Pluto Press. 2010.
Israeli plan to expel Gazans and this

Gaza is a sliver of land along the Mediterranean Coast. Per the 1947 UNGA partition resolution, Gaza’s area was many times more than what it is now, and it was to be under the UNGA 181, but during 1948, Israel removed 247 villages and towns, including Asqalan (now Israeli Ashkelon) and Najd (now Sderot). Most of them were pushed (including on boats from Jaffa) to be squeezed into the open-air prison called the Gaza ‘Strip’. Thus, 2/3rds of the current population (2.3 million, 60% of which are below 18) of the Gaza ghetto are refugees, a concentration area of “surplus people”.

After Israel’s occupation of the Strip in 1967, numerous attacks on the area occurred in 1974, 1981, 1987-1991, 1997, 2000, 2008, 2014, 2018/2019, and 2021. In 2012, the United Nations reported that Gaza would be unliveable by 2020, which was before two more wars on Gaza. The nonviolent 2018-2019 March of Return by unarmed civilians was met by Israeli forces’ systemic targeting, massacring these civilians. The violence against people living in crowded Gaza has been ongoing for decades.

The events of 7 October 2023 that took Israel by surprise and caused suffering are precisely what Palestinians have faced many-fold over the past 75 years (33 massacres in 1948 alone, and hundreds more since, including the latest series of massacres committed in Gaza in October 2023).

(3) See We Had Dreams, Gisha report, UN Statistics updated daily, UN's 2012 report, and more from UNICEF on water deprivation. The UN also stated Gaza would be unlivable by 2020, and Oxfam reported on this.

The West Bank (including Jerusalem) and Gaza have been under a brutal and illegal Israeli military occupation since 1967. This occupation is illegal per international law (illegality of acquisition of territory by war, see below). Israeli settlers built, and continue to build, colonial residential and industrial settlements in these occupied areas. Since the PLO signed an agreement which recognized Israel in 1993, it was hoped that after an interim period of 5 years of negotiations, a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank would be formed with currently Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem as its capital (the Oslo accords). Instead, the last 30 years saw an increase in the number of illegal Israeli colonial settlers squatting on Palestinian lands in the West Bank (now 970,000 settlers). Palestinians were removed from their lands and homes and squeezed into Bantustans/ghettos in the West Bank, and this process is ongoing (in just the past two years, 22 communities in the WB were removed).

Before this latest escalation on 7 October, Israel has killed 300 Palestinians in the West Bank including 38 children and two American citizens. Ben Gvir was unleashed by Netanyahu to arm settlers and gave the green light to them and to the apartheid terrorist army to shoot to kill and commit now well-documented pogroms such as at Huwwara and Turmusayya. This only intensified when on 7 October Israeli forces sealed off all our ghettos so that people are trapped (for example Bethlehem people cannot get to Ramallah or Jericho). 106 Palestinians were thus killed in the West Bank since 7 October alone (18 days). Since the occupation in 1967, the Palestinian economy has been devastated, natural resources are stolen and given to colonial settlers, and there are almost daily incursions into Palestinian cities and holy sites like Al-Aqsa mosque, but all of this intensified under the extremely right-wing government led by Netanyahu (4).

Now there is discussion and revolt in Israeli society charging that the colossal failure of the Israeli government on 7 October 2023 and the collapse of the Gaza front were directly related to diverting the army for land grabs and settler protection in the West Bank. Israeli forces and settlers are also on a rampage in the West Bank with over 600 Palestinians killed in the past year and many pogroms committed and prisoners tortured (5).

(4) Netanyahu tweeted 28 December 2022: "These are the basic lines of the national government headed by me: The Jewish People have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlements in all parts of the Land of Israel - in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, Judea, and Samaria." (Note the latter areas are all parts of historic Palestine that still has native/indigenous Palestinians that have not yet been fully ethnically cleansed). See data from UN-OCHA, B'Tselem, and ARIJ, and here is how he really thinks caught on camera, and PeaceNow reported on accelerating settlement buildings.

(5) See reports from Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, by contrast, see how Palestinians treated prisoners and tortured Palestinians.

Does a rapist or a slave owner have a right to defend himself against being hit by the victim? But more concretely, International Law says an occupying army does not have a right to defend itself from those whose land it occupies. The premise that a colonizer is doing self-defense is itself a linguistic error. Colonizers use violence to achieve their cause of ethnic cleansing. This happened in all other colonial situations in over 170 countries.

As an occupier/colonizer that was created by ethnic cleansing of the local people beginning in 1948 and continuing today, the Israeli regime defends its illegitimate colonization project (itself based on violence). The claim that Hamas's presence as a guerrilla force among the Palestinians in Gaza is also not an excuse for violating the basics of warfare and targeting civilians. After all, Israeli military facilities are also inside Israeli cities, but this does not justify targeting civilians (6). Further, Israeli authorities themselves openly declared that they are punishing the population of Gaza (not fighters from Gaza) by bombing them without warning and starving them. See Q#6 and Q#7 below.

(6) See reports from Gisha, ARENA, Doctors without Borders, OHCHR, and ARIJ.

Do millions of Palestinians, disenfranchised, impoverished, and brutalized for 75 years have a right to defend themselves? Yes, international law stipulates that local people have a right and obligation to resist oppression, consistent with international law (7). Israel’s 75 years of oppression and subjugation cannot be ignored to demand quiescent victims (8). The struggle for freedom in South Africa and Algeria or other colonial situations was not delegitimized when a minority of natives targeted colonial settlers. Ending colonization is always the only way to stop both resistance and larger colonial violence.

(7) See this (and in French)

(8) The view of Islamic Resistance Forces on 7 October and before and after events. Whether we agree with them or not, it is important to read and understand their view titled "Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" (English and Arabic).

(9) See Mary Elizabeth King's "A Quiet Revolution" (2007), Mazin Qumsiyeh's "Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment" (Pluto Press, 2014), and Marwan Darwish & Andrew Rigby's "Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance" (Pluto Press, 2015).

From its inception, Israel ethnically cleansed Palestinians (a breach of international law, including the Geneva Conventions). Israel was admitted to the UN only when it agreed to implement UN resolutions, including UNGA 181 and 194, but Israel refused to implement them. Subsequently, Israel has violated over 70 UN Security Council Resolutions and hundreds of UNGA resolutions.

In the most recent October 2023 conflict in Gaza, Israel engaged in collective punishment, verifiable war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Human rights organizations (AI, HRW, PHR, B’Tselem) and global organizations (UN, WHO, etc.) denounced collective punishment, including carpet bombing of residential buildings, denial of life basics, and use of white phosphorus on civilian areas (10).

(10) See reports from Change.org Petition, Mondoweiss Testimonies, and 972mag on targeting civilians.

(11) Genocide convention is relevant and was activated via a case brought by South Africa, also now joined by dozens of other countries. There are also cases at the International Criminal Court. See Raz Segal, Israeli historian, who states it is "A Textbook Case of Genocide" and from Popular Resistance.

(12) See the World Food Program on the crisis in Gaza and Oxfam's reaction to IPC food security figures. Reports by the Palestine Red Crescent Society cover from 7 Oct - 20 Dec.

The criminality of Israeli leaders is reflected in their racist statements about indigenous people (13). Israeli leaders have always chosen to use their military might to achieve their objectives of colonization. Yitzhaq Rabin, who came the closest to recognizing some need to compromise and allow some margin of freedom for some Palestinians, was assassinated by a right-wing Zionist. Since then, Israeli leadership has shifted to become even more racist and fascist (e.g., having settlers like Smotrich and Ben Gvir in the cabinet). This and the educational system that is racist ensure a public that is racist.

For example, 57.5% of the Israeli Jewish public actually think the Israeli military is not doing enough killing (genocide, see point 6 above), and 34% think it is about right! So 94% agree with genocide. View here.

(13) Israeli racism is rampant from the highest to lowest levels of society. The Israeli "defense" minister ordered starvation, explaining that "we are dealing with human animals," and the Israeli President says there are no innocent civilians in Gaza and that they are responsible. Moshe Feiglin stated, "The only solution is the complete destruction of Gaza."

Israeli dissidents expose genocidal language.

"We will turn Gaza into an island of ruins" — Benjamin Netanyahu, 8 October 2023.
"We are dropping hundreds of tons of bombs on Gaza. The focus is on destruction, not accuracy" — Daniel Hagari, Israeli army spokesperson, 10 October, in Haaretz.
"Animal humans will be treated accordingly. You wanted hell, and you’ll get hell." — Ghassan, Major General of the Israeli army, October 9, social media post.

"There is an entire nation who is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians supposedly not being involved is absolutely untrue… We will fight until we break their backs." — Yitzhak Herzog, Israeli President, press conference.

"Jericho missile! Doomsday weapon! That is my opinion. Powerful rockets to be fired without limits/borders. Gaza to be smashed and razed to the ground. Without mercy." — Tally Gotliv, 9 October, on X/Twitter.

"Wipe out their families, their mothers, and their children. These animals must not be allowed to live any longer." — Ezra Yachin, Israeli veteran who participated in the ethnic cleansing of 1948 (Nakba).

"The only thing that needs to enter Gaza is hundreds of tons of explosives, not one ounce of humanitarian relief." — Itamar Ben Gvir, Israeli minister in charge of police and arming settlers.

"They should go, as well as the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there." — Ayelet Shakid.

"We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children." — Golda Meir.

"I am here today not only as the US Secretary of State but also as a Jew… as long as the US exists, you will never have to do this (alone) because we will always be with you." — US Secretary of State Blinken, 12 October.

Michael Ben-Ari, ex-member of the Knesset: "There are no innocents in Gaza. Mow them down... Kill the Gazans without thought or mercy."

Israel Katz, Minister of Transportation: "Gaza should be bombed so hard the population has to flee into Egypt."

Avi Dichter, Current Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Former Shin Bet director and Minister of Internal Security: "Gaza should be wiped clean with bombs."

"The Gaza Strip must be smaller at the end of the war. Anyone who starts a war against Israel must lose territory." — Gideon Sa’ar, Israeli Interior Minister.

View more here.

Children’s song in Israel.
What Zionists really think about Christians here. Fascism ruling "Israel" was predictable.

There is a significant body of literature on the suppression of free speech in Western countries when it relates to Palestinian rights. The corporate media is dominated by the Zionist narrative based on lies, distortions, and attempts to blame the victims (14).

(14) See Human Rights Watch statement, ACLU, Adalah, and reports on the crackdown in European universities and Germany silencing free speech. Many Western countries under the influence of the lobby suppress free speech, examples here and this.

Yes, daily. This is more blatant in Gaza but has been going on for 75 years. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz (7/15/01) reported that: "... giving his audience (Likud leaders) a bit of advice on how to deal with foreign interviewers (Benjamin Netanyahu said): 'Always, irrespective of whether you're right or not, you must always present your side as right'." From its inception, the Israeli government and its agents abroad have lied. There were false flag operations like the Lavon Affair, or the bombing of Jewish community centers in Iraq to blame it on locals and scare Iraqi Jews to leave their country (15).

(15) See The Lavon Affair: Israel and Terror in Egypt, and in Iraq to drive Jewish exodus, see Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew, and Israel killed an American citizen and lied about it, and this UN report on the shelling of a UN Compound (Qana massacre 1996) that reveals Israeli tactics.

(16) Israel's history of lies, and more on how Israel lies to manufacture a case for genocide: Truthout article. Just three lies on Gaza: Netanyahu in a video worth watching: Hostages distortion, Palestine Chronicle, and more on the Ahli Hospital bombing.

(17) On 7 October 2023, Israeli forces activated Hannibal directive, which meant they killed their own citizens. See more details on this Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, and Why Israel is trying to hide this hostage interview. Israeli TV admits to Israeli army shooting Israelis. More on sexual violence in Israeli prisons can be found in Palestine Chronicle and other related resources.

As the late professor Edward Said articulated clearly, Palestinian voices are methodically suppressed. This only intensified as the Zionist movement increased its grip on Western media, which then silenced Palestinian voices. In the US, for example, distorted, misleading, and outright false coverage is a result of strong Zionist lobbies (18). Free speech must be protected in all countries: in Palestine, Israeli forces shoot you for demonstrating, meanwhile Germany, France, and Belgium are trying to outlaw free speech or demonstrations addressing human rights/international law/Palestine, and even balanced reporters are harassed or fired (19).

(18) See Mearsheimer and Walt on the Israel lobby: The Guardian, Decolonize Palestine, If Americans Knew.

(19) See Paul Findley's "They Dare to Speak Out": Al Jazeera, TRT World, and AP News. Also see: N+1 Magazine.

Israel is a Jewish state built on the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the establishment of an apartheid state that ruled over the remaining Palestinians in 1948. At least 65 Israeli laws discriminate against non-Jewish citizens within the Greenline (1948 Palestine). After Israel expanded illegally to occupy the rest of the area (West Bank and Gaza) in 1967, it set up laws and military orders to oppress indigenous people while allowing Jewish settlers to live on stolen lands.

In "greater Israel," there are 7.1 million privileged Israeli Jews and 7.3 million disenfranchised Palestinians. Human rights organizations like AI, HRW, PHR, and B’Tselem have called the dual legal system apartheid (20).

(20) See Adalah, UN Special Rapporteur, Addameer, Amnesty, and B’Tselem for more information.

Absolutely not. While the Zionists have used Judaism as an excuse and weaponized it in their attacks on the native people, the colonial and apartheid system does not discriminate in its victimization of native Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bahai, or Atheists. All non-Jews were targeted for ethnic cleansing, with the exception of the self-proclaimed Christian Zionists (21). Palestinian and non-Palestinian Christians have been outspoken for human rights. Jews have also been the most outspoken (22).

Israel’s use of religion to justify colonization has led to attacks on religious sites and sensibilities. Settler attacks on Al-Aqsa mosque (the 3rd holiest site in Islam) have sparked uprisings, such as the most recent one (23).

(21) Christian Zionism
(22) Jewish Voice for Peace
(23) Al-Aqsa mosque attacks

All wars historically have been initiated based on geopolitics related to greed (money and theft of natural resources and land). Religion and ethnicity are used to rally people around a cause that ultimately profits a small segment of the population. The Zionists decided to take a country from its owners and ended up stealing all its natural resources, including ports, farms, and water resources.

Regarding Gaza, Netanyahu’s regime eyed dissolving the Palestine question to create an alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative, connecting East to West via "Israel" (including Gaza) and Israeli-dominated Gulf states like Saudi Arabia. This was shown in maps presented by Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly months ago. There are even plans for a canal from Eilat to Gaza to rival the Suez Canal.

It is no coincidence that the discovery of huge gas fields off the Gaza coast preceded the blockade on Gaza in 2006. Israel covets those fields and wants them to be the main source of gas to Europe, replacing Russian gas. Israeli weapons and security-related sales bring billions to Israeli elites, competing with traditional exporters of destruction like the USA. Israeli importers and the government (via tax) profit from the humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank that comes through Israel (24).

(24) See Who Profits for more information on companies benefiting from the occupation and ethnic cleansing, the centrality of trade corridors, and Gaza as a testing lab. Also, check out the book on "Corporate Complicity in Israel's Occupation" for detailed evidence.

Israel receives nearly $4 billion in military aid annually from the US, which also shields it from prosecution under international law using its UN veto power. This collusion with apartheid is even against US law (25a). Some Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority also help Israel (25b). Part of this is due to colonial and imperial powers' history, while another factor is the strong Zionist lobby (26).

The US military-industrial complex profits, with much of Israel’s funding spent on US arms (27). Zionist lobbies in Western countries (28) and other geopolitical factors contribute. Arab dictatorships are also dependent on US support, believing in US hegemony. This complicity has emboldened Israel to continue its human rights violations, leading to resistance seen in October 2023 (29).

(25a) Leahy Law
(25b) See the land bridge to supply Israel: Link 1, Link 2. See more on Oslo treachery: Link 3
(26) See the lobby data here: Link 4, Link 5.

(27) For more on military funding: Link 6
(28) US Hypocrisy in supporting crimes: Link 7, Link 8.

(29) Further reading: Al Haq, IMEU, Opinio Juris.

Palestinians will continue to fight for freedom and justice, supported by people worldwide, including Jews, despite massacres, refugees, and apartheid conditions. Amnesty International stated that addressing the root causes, including ending the Gaza blockade and apartheid, is essential to halting cycles of violence (30). Justice includes the return of refugees, ending apartheid laws, and full equality. Proposals for peace were rejected, but full withdrawal from occupied territories remains essential (31).

(30) Amnesty International statement
(31) Ali Kazak on peace, John Mearsheimer on peace, and more from a bereaved Palestinian doctor.

For more information on the situation, you can visit the following resources:

• Al Jazeera Live
• Electronic Intifada
• PNN English on Telegram
• PNN English
• IMEMC
• Democracy Now
• Israel Palestine News
• If Americans Knew
• IMEU
• Press TV Live
• Mondoweiss
• Israel Palestine Timeline
• Palestine Remembered
• Middle East Monitor
• Decolonize Palestine
• Visualizing Palestine
• Jewish Voice for Peace
• WAFA News
• US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
• Nakba Paths
• Gisha

You can help financially by donating to the following organizations:

• Medical Aid for Palestinians
• Middle East Children's Alliance
• UNRWA
• ANERA
• PCRS
• United Palestinian Appeal

• Educate yourself (resources above plus books, videos like Occupation 101, Born in Gaza)
• Use the right language (colonialism, apartheid, collective punishment) not "conflict"; it's a war on the people of Gaza.
• Write to media (letters to editors or op-eds)
• Join groups like the International Solidarity Movement
• Create or join local groups of joint struggle (like PSM)
• Join political parties and lobby politicians
• Use social media with hashtags for Palestine (Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok)
• Join or organize protests (5 people or 50,000 people)
• Join the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign and other campaigns
• Join Right to Enter
• Organize street theatres, flash mobs, tabling, or flyering
• Engage in civil disobedience
• Contact local faith centers (churches, mosques, synagogues, temples)
• Take action using the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights toolkit to stop the genocide in Gaza
• Sign petitions, like the 700,000-signature petition
• Volunteer in Palestine
• Sign more petitions, such as the petition to stop the killing or this petition

In the West Bank, spotlight oppression continues, expand civilian defense groups, challenge Arab governments on hypocrisy, challenge Western governments to stop funding and arming Israel, and bring Israeli leaders to trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

• Al-Haq Legal Center: Defiance in the Face of Genocide
• Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability
• Nobel Peace Laureat Mairead Maguire Statement
• Center for Constitutional Rights: Israel's Crime of Genocide in Gaza
• Jewish Currents: A Textbook Case of Genocide by Raz Segal
• Let them eat cement: Israel's use of starvation as a weapon
• Palestinian Christians’ plea to world churches
• US Psychiatric Association statement
• Amnesty International Report on war crimes
• Open Letter from Palestinian Christians
• Salman Abu Sitta's account of the siege
• Group of Elders statement
• Statements from notable figures: Josh Paul, John Mearsheimer, Gabor Mate, Scott Ritter, Miko Peled
• NOTICE OF LEGAL LIABILITY
• Khaled Nabheen: Video testimony of his personal loss
• Refaat Alareer: Palestinian Poet, Teacher, and Martyr
• Two nuns who remain in Gaza to help

• Most eloquent speech at the UN and one of the reasons I am optimistic about our future.
• Millions were out in the streets in October 2023 despite governments' threats and intimidation:
• Example 1
• Example 2
• Example 3
• Example 4
• Example 5
• Example 6
• Example 7
• Example 8
• Example 9
• Example 10
• Example 11
• Example 12
• Example 13
• Example 14
• Example 15
• Example 16
• Example 17
• Example 18
• Example 19

Summary video

Annex

CAUSE

• Netanyahu long before this genocidal action
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• Facebook video 1
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• The wild beast of Israeli racism
• Israel's defense minister calling Palestinians "human animals"
• Conflict in Northern Gaza

EFFECT

See this visual impact of numbers from the UN:

• Visual impact of hostilities

Then view some of these videos for personal impact:

• Video 1
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• Video 27
• Twitter post