And it makes me wonder…

Settlers throw stones at Palestinians as IDF soldiers stand by in the West Bank village of Asira al Qibliya. April 30, 2013 (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Ring, ring! Ring, ring!

Operator: Atrocities Unlimited, how can I help you?

Palestine: Hello, my name is Palestine.

Operator: Hello Mr. Palestine, what can I do for you?

Palestine: Yes, well, I understand you end atrocities and human rights violations.

Operator: That’s very true. Are you suffering from an atrocity or human rights violation, sir?

Palestine: Yes, I am. I have been under occupation for 46 years.

Operator: Occupation?

Palestine: Yes, occupation.

Operator: Sir, you do understand that we assist on a Worst Come, First Serve basis?

Palestine: Excuse me?

Operator: A Worst Come, First Serve basis.

Palestine: What does that mean?

Operator: It means we deal with the worst atrocity first. You are not the worst atrocity, sir.

Palestine: I didn’t say I was, but… but… I am suffering.

Operator: I’m sure you’re suffering but there are others out there who need our help before you, sir.

Palestine: But…

Operator: …and until then you just have to sit quiet and wait your turn. Will that be it, sir?

Palestine: But wait! OK, OK… so, tell me where I am in line… can you do that?

Operator: 31.

Palestine: 31?!?!? There are 31 peoples before me?

Operator: Yes, sir.

Palestine: But, what does that mean? How long do I have to wait?

Operator: That depends.

Palestine: On what?

Operator: Many things. For example, if there’s an international intervention in Syria, you might move up a space or two.

Palestine: A space or two?

Operator: Yes, sir.

Palestine: I don’t feel well. Who else is in front of me?

Operator: Well, according to my board here, there’s some rough stuff going down in Sudan, China, Mali, Myanmar and others, to name a few. But, it’s all pretty fluid.

Palestine: So… You can’t tackle more than one at a time? I have to wait?

Operator: I’m afraid so, sir.

Palestine: But I’ve been waiting so long.

Operator: Well, have you tried a change of tactics?

Palestine: I’ve tried everything.

Operator: Patience, sir. All I can say is: patience. And thank you for calling Atrocities Unlimited!

Last week, Larry Derfner made an argument against international intervention in Syria. This was before news broke of the recent attack (video above), and things are different now. Here are a few of my thoughts:

Israel has reportedly struck targets inside Syria twice in four days. This time, the targets were in the Damascus area and unlike the previous strike, the Syrian regime publicly blamed Israel for the latest attack. So intervention is Syria is no longer a theoretical option, but something that to a limited degree is already taking place (and not just as a response to occasional stray fire from Syrian territory, as Israel and Turkey have done in the past). We can expect such attacks to happen again.

The real question is whether the international community should move from a containment effort – i.e. ensuring that the war doesn’t spill into other countries or that WMDs and other advanced weapons systems are not moved – to offensive action against the regime. I think the answer is unclear, but recently I’ve been leaning towards ‘yes.’

Naturally, it’s not Israel that should lead or even take part in such an effort, for all the obvious reasons. Still, I think we should see greater Israeli involvement on the humanitarian side of the conflict. Unlike all the countries that border Syria, Israel has only accepted a handful of Syrian casualties, and no refugees. The problems that the entry of refugees pose to Lebanon and Jordan exceed the threat to Israel considerably, yet those countries allow hundreds of thousands of Syrians into their territory (Jordan doesn’t allow Palestinians, however). None of these countries are as rich and powerful as Israel. If Israel ever wants to be accepted in the Middle East, it should start acting like a Middle Eastern country and share the burden in times of suffering. It’s way more important than sending aid delegations to Haiti.

With regards to international military intervention, I do not think the main problem is the potential rise of radical groups when the regime eventually falls. With or without intervention, what happens next in Syria is anybody’s guess. It’s also not clear that holding back from intervening is the best way to secure the Syrian WMDs (unlike in Iraq, Syria’s weapons actually exist). Much could happen – the regime could sell them to third parties, scientists and officers might defect with them, and so on.

I am no expert, but from what I gather, handling chemical weapons on a large scale is a complicated business, so the most likely scenario remains that future use will be by the regime. Plus, if Israel continues to strike Syria on its own, the regime might be tempted to respond in some way or another (especially if it feels its back is against the wall) perhaps in a last-ditched effort to unite supporters in a holy war against Israel.

The best argument against intervention is the obvious ones: that foreign powers do little good when they enter such conflicts, and that the West should stop trying to shape the Middle East through military force. Along that line of thinking, another war would solidify the feeling by many that we are witnessing a new version of colonialism in the Gulf and parts of the Middle East, where most countries are governed either by autocratic pro-American regimes, or directly by a Western army.

But the Syrian case is unique. Because of the ethnic divisions in Syria, we are witnessing a regime that is conducting a war against its own citizens (I suggest reading this debate on Angry Arab – a site hostile to the opposition – for more). While atrocities are also being carried out by the opposition, the regime is committing them systematically. Things couldn’t get much worse, but the international debate has taken a sick twist: it’s no longer about whether the regime kills its citizens by the thousands, but how it does it. As long as Assad doesn’t gas his own people – and only shoots or bombs them – he seems to be safe.

It’s okay to be against humanitarian military interventions as a rule. However, if one believes — even theoretically — that there are situations in which the international community must intervene militarily, the Syrian case looks like it qualifies.

Join the discussion:

Related:
The least terrible policy in Syria: Doing nothing
UNRWA: A quarter-million Palestinians displaced in Syrian civil war thus far

According to UNRWA:

Mortars and small arms were reportedly used, damaging and destroying refugee homes and contributing to dozens of fatalities and injuries, including among Palestinian civilians. In the aftermath of the fighting, a number of young Palestine refugee men were reportedly taken away by the armed opposition groups who now remain in Ein El Tal camp, where a situation of high tension prevails.

Several months ago the PLO estimated that over 600 Palestinians, mostly civilians, had been killed as a result of the fighting, but this number has since risen considerably.

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30 Palestinians killed last week in Syria
Five Palestinian children killed in Syria

I, too, would like to neutralize the threat of the jihadists in Syria, and Hezbollah, and the possibility that they will take control of Assad’s chemical weapons (and worse, much worse, his possible biological weapons). But how is that going to be accomplished? Here, according to Haaretz’s Amos Harel, is what the Americans think it will take.

In briefings recently for American media representatives, administration officials have said that removing the chemical weapons threat in Syria would require ground operations involving no fewer than 75,000 U.S. troops, probably with assistance from other countries. …

A military operation in Syria would require precise intelligence at an extraordinary level. It’s reasonable to assume that it would also involve military resistance on the part of the Assad regime … Intelligence experts are divided over whether Iran and Hezbollah would help defend the Syrian chemical weapon sites in the event of a U.S.-led military operation targeting them. But that would just be the beginning of America’s headache.

The weaponry would have to be collected on the ground and perhaps transported outside of Syria so it could be neutralized and buried; either that or the facilities in which the weapons are stored would have to be destroyed. That’s a task of rare proportions which would take many months to carry out, even if the capture of the weapons proceeded more easily than expected.

If it were possible to do the whole thing by remote control, to simply bomb the chemical/biological weapons out of commission, I’d be in favor of that – so long as innocent people weren’t anywhere remotely close to the explosions, and so long as all that poison couldn’t be carried on the wind anyplace. But such conditions, obviously, are impossible. So bombing the weapons out of existence isn’t an option, either. (The Free Syrian Army says Israel hit a chemical weapons site in the country on Saturday, but there’s been no word from Damascus or Jerusalem on it.)

In all, I can’t think of anything Israel, the United States or anybody else can do to ensure that Syria’s chemical and maybe biological weapons don’t come into the possession of Islamic terrorists. The prospective “no-fly zone” that a lot of Americans are talking about might make it harder for Assad to prosecute the war and thus bring down the level of killing – or it might not. At any rate, a no-fly zone is not going to remove the chemical/biological weapons from Syria or the jihadists who would like to have them.

And I don’t believe Israeli leaders think the air force can stop those weapons from being smuggled out by repeating indefinitely what it did in January – bombing a weapons convoy that was moving from Syria to Lebanon, without Israelis getting injured. If the air force bombs Syria repeatedly, it seems pretty likely that Syrian or Hezbollah missiles will start falling in Israel, and after that anything could happen.

But the thing is, even if Israel or the United States could neutralize all the chemical and biological weapons and all the terrorists in Syria and Lebanon, there would still be plenty more of them around and plenty more being created all the time. And one other thing – the terrorists and those sorts of weapons have been around for a long time, many decades, and so far they haven’t come together. I don’t think it’s because the jihadists are incapable of getting and using such weapons. I remember after 9/11, Rudolph Giuliani said the thing he feared most was somebody going up with a crowd of tourists to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, taking a tiny plastic bag out of his pocket and sprinkling a few specks of anthrax into the winds over Manhattan and killing hundreds of thousands. It hasn’t happened, and it doesn’t seem that hard to do. There have to be other reasons why Al Qaeda-style groups have not used chemical or biological weapons or “dirty bombs” or other reasonably accessible mass killing instruments against its enemies, and I think one of the reasons is deterrence: The reaction against the jihadists and their world, or worlds, would be catastrophic beyond imagination.

I’m not saying such an attack can’t or won’t ever happen. But since it hasn’t yet, and since there’s no way to get rid of the threat, and since an attempt to get rid of it in Syria would seem to be so inordinately daunting and dangerous – and inconclusive – I think the least terrible option is to do nothing and go on trusting to deterrence.  To refrain from attacking anything and anybody in Syria unless they attack first.

As for the humanitarian consideration – the need to stop Assad from killing people by the tens of thousands – if a no-fly zone could help, then by all means. But foreign soldiers should not be ordered to get between Assad and the jihadists who are leading the fight against him. If anybody wants to volunteer to go there as a peacekeeping troop, good luck to him, but no country owes it to Syria or to humanity to risk its soldiers’ lives on such a mission.

Join the discussion:

Although information about what is actually occurring in Syria is only a click away, Israeli society, it seems, chooses to stay away and ignore the atrocities taking place on the other side of the border.

Israel Social TV is an independent media NGO working to promote social change, human rights, social justice and equality, and to mobilize its viewers towards activism.

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‘Why don’t you write about Syria?’
30 Palestinians killed last week in Syria

As a “second-generation Holocaust survivor,” Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) has always been of great importance to me; its lessons were etched into my conscience from the earliest times in my childhood memories. The words, “never again,” represent the values I was most deeply instilled with. However, those very values, which I once thought were universal, appear to be lost on so many. Perhaps my understanding of the values and memories of the Holocaust differs from others’: never again – not to anyone, ever.

As a child, I received the same Holocaust education as most other Jews. I heard first-hand memories from my grandmother and less so from my mother – both survivors of Nazi concentration camps. I went on to hear nearly identical stories in Holocaust museums all over the world, one such museum even has an exhibit specifically about my mother. Over several years, I helped my grandmother put her story onto paper and video so they would not be lost once she left this world. The value of those stories remain close to my heart and I am glad that they have been preserved so I might one day pass them on to my own children and grandchildren. The meaning of those stories has helped to shape my morals, values and personal goals. I was taught that they define us Jews as a people.

I was taught that the words “never again” mean never again to anyone. I was taught that the story of survival was about perseverance, not persecution. I was taught that as survivors of one of the most horrific and unimaginable crimes in the history of mankind, the Jewish people were endowed with a special responsibility to prevent such atrocities from ever occurring to any man, anywhere, any time, ever again. However, after living in Israel for almost three years, I am beginning to believe that this education was not universal. Searching through the three major Israeli newspapers on Yom HaShoah, I could not find even one op-ed that even resembled these ideas of using the lessons of our own tragedies to help others. Aside from the almost gratuitous articles about a glitch in the siren sounded in Tel Aviv and technical reporting of the day’s events, it seems that not one Israeli newspaper was willing to take the lessons of the Holocaust out of the context of Jewish suffering and to apply it to all persecuted peoples.

In no way do I intend to trivialize the memory of the 6 million Jews who were slaughtered at the hands of the Nazis. In no way do I intend to lessen the importance of honoring their memory. I am, however, shocked that my Jewish brethren are so afraid of using that memory to make the world a better place for all of mankind. That it is trivial to apply “never again” to the helpless people of Darfur (who are being slaughtered as you read this) sickens me. That we use the imagery and memory of Hitler’s crimes to justify war with Iran would make my grandmother turn over in her grave. That we do not see it as our place in the world to be the most outspoken advocate for all threatened peoples makes me question if we have learned any lessons from our victimhood.

The Holocaust is one of the most defining collective memories of the modern Jewish people, that we do not use it to make the world a better place for all mankind threatens the memory of all those who perished in the camps and of all those who died trying to save us. Yom HaShoah should continue to be a day of mourning, but maybe, it also needs to become a day of action.

Let us stand today to honor the memory of those who suffered and those who perished. Let us stand today to remind the world that we can never again stand idly by while innocent people are slaughtered because of their race, color, religion or any other reason.

Never again means never again.

Related:
Holocaust day: Prove that you are alive 
Remembering, but not understanding, the Holocaust

By Talal Alyan

A building burning in Homs, Syria (photo: Bo yaser / CC BY_2.5)

The lapse of support for the Syrian revolution amongst some segments of the Arab left will in retrospect be regarded as another failure to stray from party vanguards. Palestinians have once again found themselves being used as props for political causes they neither endorse nor hold any sympathy for. The latest instance being the Pro-Assad camp that has worked tirelessly to link the Palestinian issue with the Assad regime.

It is worth examining the story of Najati Sidqi, the prominent Palestinian Communist, who was very much mentored in the Soviet tradition. At the age of 22, Sidqi traveled to the Soviet Union for purposes of training and education. He then returned to Palestine to become one of the leaders of the Palestinian Communist Party. A brief glance at the efforts of Arab Communist movements against fascism shows a halt after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. Of course, fascism hadn’t suddenly become less grim; it only took the signal from Party headquarters in Moscow to mute huge portions of Arab Communists on the subject. Najati Sidqi had traveled through Germany in 1936, and when it become clear that party loyalty required staying away from the subject of fascism, he would have no part of it. Sidqi broke away from other Arab Communists at the time and continued to vehemently criticize fascism and the Soviet-German pact. His unwillingness to follow a prescribed party agenda illustrates the Palestinian legacy of putting morality before loyalty to political parties, one we would do well to maintain.

That isn’t to say the majority of Palestinians have sided with Bashar Assad – the contrary is true. Just as important as standing by the Syrian people is the need to loudly proclaim the the pro-Assad voices which try to merge the Palestinian cause with that of a tyrant do not speak for us, and that the misrepresentation they cause is as much of an affront to our people as anything Israel is doing. It is worth noting how offensive it is when the Assad camp uses the suffering of one people, Palestinians in this instance, to justify the oppression of another – something Assad-Loyalists seem to unwittingly share with Israel.

How we think of the Syrian opposition

Moreover, the claim that the Syrian opposition has been imported from abroad stands in direct contrast with facts on the ground. The argument against it has been constructed both from those who have recently been to Syria, and those who have done any serious examination of the subject. But let us presuppose that there are significant elements within the Syrian armed resistance that have been funded by foreign powers. Would that detail dictate that we abandon the popular uprising altogether? The Palestinian Authority is partially funded by the West and their security forces trained by the West. Thus, the rebuttal goes, the Palestinian Authority is not representative of all Palestinian resistance and aspiration. And that is exactly the point. Even if segments of Syrian opposition are armed or funded by foreign powers, it by no means indicates that these hypothetical segments represent the entire Syrian uprising. And even if they did, who are we to tell the Syrians what means they can use to fight a despot and his foreign funded army?

The point that seems to be lost is that even if we assume that the argument that it is in Palestinian’s interest for Assad to maintain power were true, we would not ask that of our Syrian brothers and sisters. In retrospect, it is undeniable that Najati Sidqi’s position was brave and morally sound. He was kicked out of the Communist Party in the early 1940s for his decision to stand against fascism, isolated for insisting that the suffering of people cannot be secondary. The Syrian revolution will be remembered similarly, and those who opted to put their perceived ideological commitments before the will of a people will once again have to ready their erasers when they sit down to remember their positions during this era of revolt.

The Syrian people are our allies – it is they who have welcomed us and resisted with us. They have adopted our struggle as their own. It is true that Syria is an essential part in the fight for Palestine, that much Assad-apologists have gotten right. But it is not the Assad dynasty, which has done very little vis-a-vis the occupied Golan Heights in recent years, that we need to stand with us. It is the Syrian people. I fear if we continue observing their struggle with ambivalence, they will not forgive us. And rightly so.

Talal Alyan is a Palestinian freelance writer currently living in Syracuse, New York.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East UNRWA, Mohammad Al-Khateeb (aged 14) was killed on March 15 by a bullet as he was returning home on foot after buying bread from a bakery in his neighborhood in Dera’a. On March 19, Hisham Mahmoud (aged 10) and Farhat Mubarak (aged 11), were killed at the crossroad of Yazour and Safad Streets in Yarmouk, Damascus. They were returning home from classes at a community-run learning center when an explosive shell detonated nearby, killing them instantly. In a separate incident on the same day, two brothers, Ali Mijel (aged 14) and Abdullah Mijel (aged 15), were killed along with their aunt and cousin when an explosive shell hit their home on Hittin Street in Sbeineh Camp.

Prior to the Syrian Civil War, there were approximately one million Palestinian refugees living in the country. Last November, the PLO estimated that over 600 Palestinians died in the war, though this number has risen considerably since. At least 20,000 Palestinians have been able to flee the country to Lebanon, while the Jordanian government continues to send Palestinian refugees back, claiming that they are not affected by the conflict in the same way other Syrian civilians are. However, many believe that the as refugees, the Palestinians are actually more vulnerable than other groups.

Following the killing of 30 other Palestinians last month, Christopher Gunness, a spokesperson for UNRWA, told +972 that “refugees by their nature are already among the most vulnerable people in any society, and in a situation like in Syria clearly they are more vulnerable.”

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‘Why don’t you write about Syria?’

It’s not unusual for any report on a wrongdoing by the IDF in the occupied territories to be received here with comments such as: “why don’t you write Syria instead?” Or, when a report on a massacre in Syria does surface, someone is only to eager to use it to improve Israel’s image, in some sick, relativist fashion.

A rather funny – or tragic, depending on what you think – example was when Likud MK Ophir Akunis attacked the Israeli organization Physicians for Human Rights for criticizing the Israeli government “but saying nothing about Syria.” Only that PHR did talk about Syria – several times. Akunis, who blocked the Facebook commenters who tried to state this fact on his page, wasn’t really interested in the Syrians, but in the delegitimization of the struggle for the rights of Palestinians under Israeli control.

The same goes for many other such comments. And when one does write about the Palestinians who are being killed in Syria, the responses are usually along the lines of “what makes the Palestinians so special? write about the rest of the population!” and so on. At the same time, I am also surprised by the relative indifference for the plight of Palestinian refugees in the civil war by those supporting their cause on other fronts. Where are the mass protests against the brutal, inhuman policy of the Jordanian government, which lets Syrian refugees in but sends the Palestinians back?

Naturally, I think Israel should be the first to help Palestinian refugees in trouble, for obvious historical reasons. With the current political trends here, such hopes are beyond science fiction, and even an honest debate is impossible.

Syrian refugee camp (photo: Roee Ruttenberg)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) issued a press release on Sunday expressing grave concern over the rising number of Palestinian casualties in the Syrian civil war. According to credible sources, an estimated total of 30 Palestinians were killed in the last week. Twelve of the casualties – including five members of the same family – were from Yarmouk refugee camp.

Ma’an News Agency reported that a high-level PLO delegation arrived in Syria today to discuss the situation of the Palestinians in the country. The delegation intends to talk to members of the Syrian regime and representatives from Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Back in November, the PLO estimated the number of Palestinians who died in the war at 600, but since then there have been dozens more casualties. “The situation is so confused that it’s impossible to give a confirmed figure of casualties,” Christopher Gunness a spokesperson for UNRWA, told +972 today.

Half a million Palestinian refugees lived in Syria prior to the war. At least 20,000 Palestinians were able to flee the country to Lebanon, but the Jordanian government continues to send Palestinian refugees back, claiming that they are not affected by the conflict in the same way (the real reason probably has to do with Jordanian fears for the stability of the regime). In November, the Economist estimated that only 1,700 Palestinians were allowed by Jordan into the country. According to reports, there are no Palestinians in the Zaatari refugee camp, located in the north of Jordan.

A press release by UNRWA on Sunday stated that:

UNRWA deplores the unrelenting armed conflict in Syria and the extreme suffering it is inflicting on civilians, including Palestine refugees. In recent statements, the Agency has highlighted the crisis of large numbers compelled to leave the refugee camps in Rif Damascus to seek safety elsewhere, and the plight of those who remain in the camps. These Palestine refugees are unable to move safely, are subject to severe movement restrictions and face escalating threats from shelling and armed clashes. Poverty and deprivation are increasing in the Palestinian community, exacerbating vulnerabilities that existed prior to the Syria conflict, and lack of access to food and essential services continues to cause serious distress. These developments have left the Palestine refugee community, alongside their Syrian neighbours, profoundly traumatized and fearful of the future.

The UN estimates that about 5,000 people are fleeing Syria every day. Since the conflict began, 787,000 people were registered as refugees by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Palestinians are at high risk in this conflict due to their special position in the region. “Refugees by their nature are already among the most vulnerable people in any society,” says Mr. Gunness, “and in a situation like in Syria clearly they are more vulnerable.”