Stripped to death

With Gaza ablaze, Israeli-American peace
activist Jeff Halper sees a deadly debacle
with Hamas as the ultimate winner

COUNTING THE HUMAN COST: Halper (below)

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

For more than a decade, Jeff Halper, the co-founder and executive director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, has been at the forefront of efforts to make peace between ordinary Israelis and Palestinians. In 2006, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize along with Palestinian activist Ghassan Andoni. The American-born former lecturer of anthropology at Ben Gurion University and veteran of the U.S. civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements recently published An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, which interweaves his personal story with his analysis of the conflict. The Mirror reached him at Ben Gurion airport where he was awaiting his flight to Halifax, the starting point of a Canadian speaking tour. (On Monday, organizers say the Federation Combined Jewish Appeal forced the cancellation of Thursday’s talk at the Gelber Centre on Côte-Ste-Catherine.)

Mirror: Let’s start with the obvious: Gaza. According to the UN, as of [Monday, Jan. 12], 900 Palestinians have been killed, including well over 200 children, and more than 3,000 have been wounded in just over two weeks of fighting. On the Israeli side, 13 have been killed, 10 of them soldiers. What do you think explains the ferocity of the Israeli assault?

Jeff Halper: Israel wants to break Hamas, as well as—and they say this very openly—break the spirit of the Palestinian people. From Israel’s point of view, everyone who voted Hamas is Hamas. The killing that’s taking place on such a massive scale is sending a message, and the message is zero tolerance: If you resist this Bantustan that we’re trying to force you into, we’ll kill you.

M: The Israelis say that they’re just acting to protect their citizens from Hamas’s rockets, but many have speculated that the timing of the operation—if not the operation itself—has more to do with the upcoming Israeli elections and/or the transfer of power about to take place in the U.S. Why do you think they’re doing this now?

JH: I don’t think the operation itself has much to do with the Israeli elections because the three major parties basically have the same policies. It was designed to redeem Israel’s deterrence power after the debacle in Lebanon [in 2006]. If Israel comes out of this without dispatching Hamas after the failure against Hezbollah, then it really calls into question how much Israel can deliver for the United States. Israel is playing with the big boys because it promises to deliver in terms of fighting the “war on terror,” and if it can’t even deliver with Hamas, with this shooting fish in a barrel situation in Gaza, it’s in a weakened position. But I do think Israel is counting the minutes that we’re still under the Bush administration. It’s a desperate, last ditch attempt to get Hamas out of the way, and it can’t succeed. And the human price is terrible.

Revenge is the point

M: What’s the mood inside Israel?

JH: Ninety percent of Israelis support this thing, so there’s not a lot of critical debate. Israel is trying very hard to get a clear-cut victory, and I don’t think they can do it. Which raises the question: What was the whole point of all this? I think many Israelis now understand that there really was no point, but they’re going along with it just as much for revenge as anything else. In certain circles, there’s some satisfaction, you know, “We hit them, we’ve restored our national pride.”

M: As a member of the Free Gaza Movement, you were on the first boat to break the Israeli blockade last August. What were conditions like then?

JH: They were terrible. There were shortages of food, fuel and electricity. [But] I joined the Free Gaza Movement because it’s political, not humanitarian. We’re addressing the political reality that created the humanitarian problem. It puts the burden on Israel and those who support Israel—including Canada. In the next few days, another boat is supposed to sail from Cyprus.

M: You mentioned the war of 2006—many believe that Israel’s onslaught against Lebanon only strengthened Hezbollah. Do you think they’re making the same mistake with Hamas?

JH: For sure. Hamas, from the point of view of being the Palestinian resistance movement, has gained tremendously—to the chagrin of many Palestinians. Hamas has become the only force within the Palestinian community that is effectively resisting occupation. Fatah [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s party] has completely folded. The dilemma a lot of Palestinians have is that they don’t like Hamas, but they’re the only show in town right now as far as resisting Israel is concerned.

JEFF HALPER SPEAKS AT THE UNITARIAN
CHURCH IN WESTMOUNT (5035 DE
MAISONNEUVE W.) TODAY, JAN. 15,
7:30 P.M. AND AT UQÀM’S J.A. DE SÈVE
PAVILION (320 STE-CATHERINE E.),
ROOM DS-R 510, ON SATURDAY, JAN. 17,
2 P.M., SUGGESTED DONATION $5. FOR
MORE INFO, E-MAIL
IJVM_VIJM@YAHOO.CA.