Israeli Minister Avi Dichter: "We are now rolling out the Nakba of Gaza."
Israeli Minister Avi Dichter: "We are now rolling out the Nakba of Gaza."
Israel's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development calls events in Gaza a Nakba – a reference to ethnic cleansing.
Israeli Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development declared on television channel N12 that Israel is carrying out a Nakba in the Gaza Strip. Literally “catastrophe” in Arabic, the term is commonly used by Palestinians to refer to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1947-1948, amid which the State of Israel was founded.
The following is a transcript of the interview:
Presenter: When we see the scenes of a million people of Gaza walking with white flags heading south, is this a psychological goal of the operation? Is it strategic, or is it temporary?
Avi Dichter: It’s first and foremost an operational event. We have there a huge number of fighters of our own that have to operate in a very densely populated area. We need to reduce the number of residents…
Presenter: Is this going to result in a Nakba, or something temporary?
Dichter: We are now rolling out the Nakba of Gaza. This is the Nakba of Gaza. From operational perspective, it’s impossible to conduct fighting like the army wants in Gaza when the crowd is present between the soldiers and the enemy. So this is the Nakba of Gaza. Nakba of Gaza 2023.
Presenter: That’s how it will end? For good? They will not return to the city of Gaza?
Dichter: Look, I don’t know how it will eventually end up. The city of Gaza spans one third of the strip. Half of the population, one third of the area. There are the other two thirds of Gaza. The center camps – Khan Younis and Rafah. There are 6 more refugee camps. In the northern part there are only 2 refugee camps, large ones but only 2.
Is this a cognitive dissonance "gone wild" situation? I cannot believe that they would be ok with killing so many for an almost impossible goal (you cannot kill everyone in an organisation like Hamas, it is literally impossible).
I used to teach Holocaust studies to year 9 students for over a decade. I also organized visits of Holocaust survivors to come into school and speak to students about their experiences. I always used to say to students in lessons and during the survivor talks that we must learn the lessons of history and act to prevent any future genocides. 'Never again' was the phrase that I used. Now on a daily basis I still cannot believe my eyes when I see another genocide taking place.
The actions of the Western imperialist states in giving Israel political cover for its war crimes in Gaza ,together with the proxy war which the West is fighting in Ukraine against Russia, represent a radical departure from their previous approach to international relations. Now they don't even pretend to pay lip service to international law which represents a dangerous escalation on their behalf towards an approach which can be summed up with the phrase 'might makes right'. This does not bode well for the US ongoing pivot towards China in which the psychopaths in Washington believe they may have to fight a war with Beijing. Obviously, any war with China would rapidly escalate to a nuclear conflict and the death of everything on the planet.