Raining Death In Hebron

Anthony McIntyre ☠ It is raining here. That is hardly news.

One thing they say about the Irish weather, maybe two things: don't complain, it will change in fifteen minutes anyway; this year, summer will be on a Thursday.

Unlike ceasefire Gaza where bombs rain down, with over 1500 Palestinians killed there during the supposed cessation, we are spared that . . . for now. But where the government's abandonment of the Triple Lock mechanism might lead us is another matter.

While not everybody in Ireland has a home, those that do appreciate the value of sleeping with a roof over their head, a private space to be shared with family, a place to cook, relax, read, write or pray - for those spiritually inclined. None of them expect a bulldozer to come up, its attached megaphone blaring a five minute warning to evacuate the premises before the home is demolished, their lives' acquisitions destroyed in a flash.

That is life on the West Bank where the Nazi yahoo, Bibi the Butcher, yesterday began destroying homes of residents in Hebron, which is under military lockdown. The rationale provided is that two Palestinian freedom fighters mounted an anti-terrorist operation which claimed the lives of two invaders serving with the Israeli Occupation Force. Both freedom fighters also lost their lives.

Netanyahu, in a clear statement of colonial covetous intent referred to the Occupied West Bank as Judea and Samaria. In election mode, ahead of Israelis going to cast their vote, with him trailing behind in the polls, Netanyahu promised an attack 'such as has not been carried out since the Six Day War," He wants to demonstrate that he is Mr Security, encouraging Israeli voters to forget what he does not want them remembering: he was at the helm of Israeli society when some Palestinians broke out of their open air concentration camp and struck back.

There is much to be critical about the Palestinian action that day but to assert that it was conjured out of thin air is simply to echo the Zionist narrative which absolves its murderous forces of culpability. It is always important to deprive the Zionist fiction of oxygen so that it cannot deprive Palestinian actions of history. As much as we might wax critical of the October 7 attack, it was a counter offensive, not an offensive.

Contrast the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes with the response by the Israeli government to murderous thieves determined to steal and settle in the homes of evicted Palestinians. The thieves are rewarded with more stolen property, more weapons, more promises of a greater Israel. After yesterday's fatal armed exchange Netanyahu described the murderous thieves as "heroic" settlers who were "standing in the breach" rather than on the necks of those whose land they are stealing.

The overall plan is simple, drawn straight from the Nazi play book: impose Hebrew speakers on other people's homes, and on that basis claim Greater Israel is all the territory where Hebrew speaking Israelis happen to live. There is a parallel to be drawn with Russia using Russian speakers for its occupation of Ukraine and calls by an element on the far right AFD party in Germany for Greater Germany to encompass all German speaking areas. We know where it ends.

Human Rights Watch has described the planned mass expulsions in Hebron as a war crime and a crime against humanity while B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, has urged global pressure to halt the planned forced displacement of Palestinians. UN Secretary General Antonio Guttierez has expressed his extreme alarm.

Yet these voices will remain ignored while Western societies like Britain are more alarmed by an English pensioner holding a placard in support of Palestine Action than it is about Israel pursuing its lust for child murder in Hebron, executing fourteen year old Naji Nidal al-Baba.

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