Mark Regev ought to settle down and be trustworthy – Center East Monitor

Senior Israeli diplomat Mark Regev claimed in his weekly Jerusalem Post column that potential financial improvement within the besieged Gaza Strip might assist to keep away from one other Israeli army offensive. The previous ambassador of the apartheid state to the UK ignored the tight Israel-led and internationally-backed siege imposed since 2007, and as an alternative blamed the Palestinian resistance factions, primarily Hamas, for the deterioration of the financial situations in Gaza, in addition to the 4 main Israeli offensives since 2008 which have killed and wounded hundreds of males, girls and youngsters; displaced lots of of hundreds; and unleashed unprecedented destruction on the enclave and its infrastructure.

Referring to the recent economic plan proposed by Israeli Overseas Minister Yair Lapid, Regev stated: “All these concepts share a typical hope that, in offering financial tangibles for the individuals of Gaza, it’s attainable to strengthen the inducement to maintain the peace and thereby defer the following spherical of preventing.”

Justifying the unlawful Israeli measures in opposition to Gaza, in addition to Israel’s reluctance to simply accept the internationally-backed answer to the Israeli-Palestinian battle of a Palestinian state on the land occupied since 1967, Regev claimed that Israel ceded Gaza in 2005, however Hamas seized management and was thus chargeable for the Israeli offensives. The present visiting fellow on the Institute for Nationwide Safety Research in Tel Aviv additionally stated that the then UN Secretary-Basic Kofi Annan advised in 2006 that Hamas ought to reject “terrorism” ( the euphemism for reliable Palestinian resistance in opposition to the Israeli occupation), recognise Israel and settle for beforehand signed peace agreements between Israel and the PLO. “Sixteen years on, Hamas has failed to satisfy even certainly one of these necessities,” he stated.

Numerous issues in his article must be refuted. Nonetheless, I’ll take care of simply three.

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Regev was flawed to check with the Palestinian trigger as an financial drawback. The individuals of occupied Palestine have by no means positioned the economic system on the centre of their wrestle, even when below siege. They’re preventing to return to their land, cities and village, houses, mosques and church buildings from which they’ve been pushed at gunpoint from 1948 onwards. They’re preventing to guard their present houses from unlawful Jewish settlers; to cease their locations of worship from being became nightclubs, bars and barns.

Regev is aware of very effectively what the Palestinians are preventing for, as a result of he has been pushing Israeli propaganda in opposition to the trigger for years. He is aware of all concerning the political prisoners held by Israel in appalling situations; he is aware of all about the true standing of Jerusalem as an occupied metropolis which comprises essentially the most sacred website in Palestine, Al-Aqsa Mosque and its Noble Sanctuary; and he is aware of all concerning the reliable Palestinian proper of return. He is aware of all about all of this stuff, however chooses to disregard them as he promotes a twisted Zionist narrative.

He claimed that Israel ceded the Gaza Strip in 2005 and that the Palestinians might have constructed their state in no less than one a part of the land occupied by Israel in 1967 if Hamas had not seized management over the coastal enclave and undermined Palestinian statehood. The reality is that, legally and virtually, Israel has by no means actually left the Gaza Strip. It might have pulled its unlawful settlers out in 2005, nevertheless it has stored tight management over Gaza’s land border crossings, territorial waters and airspace. In each respect, it’s nonetheless the occupying energy. Furthermore, Hamas didn’t seize management of Gaza; it received the “free, fair and secure” elections in 2006, however Israel and its allies ignored the UN plea to respect the end result and helped Fatah to oust Hamas from the West Financial institution and tried however did not do the identical in Gaza. They’ve backed the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in Ramallah ever since.

The three situations cited by Regev as arising with Kofi Annan have been really Israel’s situations handed to Hamas via the previous the UN Secretary-Basic. At any time when reliable Palestinian resistance is known as “terrorism”, we all know that it’s Israel and its supporters talking, not the UN. When calls for are made for an occupied individuals to recognise the occupier’s “proper” to occupy their land, it can’t be a real UN demand as a result of it goes in opposition to UN resolutions and worldwide regulation. The individuals below occupation can’t be criminalised for resisting the occupation; the unlawful motion is the occupation; the legal state is Israel.

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It’s each unreasonable and immoral to insist that the individuals of Palestine ought to recognise the colonial-occupation state of Israel. Regev, due to this fact, desires to eat his cake and hold it; he desires the Palestinians to simply accept the occupation of their land, however he refuses to countenance even for one second a State of Palestine with its personal sovereignty, borders and armed forces.

In condemning Hamas for not recognising the agreements signed between Israel and the PLO, Regev doesn’t mirror on the truth that Israel has not fulfilled its personal obligations below such offers. It’s at all times the Palestinians who should make concessions to please Israel, whereas the occupation state does not do what it’s presupposed to do to make the agreements work. Such offers are solely supposed to pacify collaborationist Palestinians in Ramallah whereas shopping for time for Israel to steal but extra Palestinian land.

Regev desires the Palestinian resistance to agree on a ceasefire within the Gaza Strip however ignore what is going on within the occupied West Financial institution and Jerusalem. Why? The Palestinians in Gaza and people within the West Financial institution and Jerusalem are all Palestinians. Logically, if Regev desires the Palestinian resistance to proceed respecting the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel should cease its aggression in opposition to Palestinians in the remainder of occupied Palestine.

Diplomacy has been outlined as “the patriotic artwork of mendacity for one’s nation”, an artwork during which Mark Regev excels. Like all Israeli officers — whether or not far left or far proper — he desires all the things from the Palestinians with out giving something in return. Palestinians searching for their fundamental, reliable rights are denounced by such individuals as “terrorists”. Effectively, sufficient is sufficient. It is time for Regev and people like him to settle down and be trustworthy. We’re fed up with Zionist lies.

The views expressed on this article belong to the writer and don’t essentially mirror the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.