So the Palestinians have just been ‘unlucky’ for decades. “Their lives have been made hell.” Thank God for grammar’s indirect speech. Their lives have been made hell. We do not who made their lives hell. Nothing to see here.
Trump says of Gaza “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings—level it out and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area..” I wonder who are those lucky “people of the area” he has in mind, once those “unlucky” Palestinians have been “transferred” out of their homeland.
Trump speaks of transforming Gaza into a magnificent Riviera of the Middle East. Obviously, the starved amputees of Gaza do not fit his image of the classy people he wants to see in the Riviera he wants to build, on stolen Palestinian land.
After the press conference, I did not hear a single question about ethnic cleansing, genocide, occupation or international law. Under the new fascist leaders, just like under the old ones, those words have become old-fashioned and are to be expunged from the lexicon. The difference has never been more striking between the meek who officially hold the title “journalist” and the brave who actually work to hold the powerful to account. Now, more than ever, independent journalists are a threatened species. We should treasure them, support them and protest every attempt to silence them.
Gaza is now the prototype. We can forget international laws and international organisations. We have the bombs. You do as we wish or you will be obliterated.
Who now dares say that the forced transfer of a population by an occupying power is a war crime under the Geneva Convention? But then again, Trump and Netanyahu are not really talking about “forced transfer”. They are talking about voluntary transfer. Once the remaining Israeli hostages have been freed, and water and food have been cut off again, those unlucky Palestinians will climb voluntarily onto the buses waiting to transport them to happiness and prosperity in Egypt and Jordan. Or to whatever other client state Trump manages to threaten or bribe.
Can the ICC command a shred of respect when Netanyahu is sharing the podium with Trump? Or indeed when Trump is at the podium?
Recently, fascist leaders have been dismantling the international order by accusing its organisations and officials of being “antisemitic” or “working with terrorists”. Tomorrow they will defund and delegitimise these organisations without the need for an excuse.
I listen to Trump speak of combatting antisemitism and deporting Hamas sympathisers and I hear,
We will combat anti-Israel views and we will deport those who protest Israel’s crimes. And we will continue to conflate antisemitism and anti-Israel’s views in order to silence pro-Palestinian voices.
I watch Trump and Netanyahu, the former reading the thoughts of a real estate developer turned into a president’s speech and the latter grinning like a Cheshire cat, and I am gripped by fear. Not just for the Palestinians, but for all humanity. If we think fascism is only coming for people on a distant shore, we ought to think again. I watch Netanyahu repeating lies that investigative journalists have spent months debunking. Why would he care? The truth about his lies will not make it to mainstream media and the consciousness of the majority of people. And the more he repeats those lies, the more they take hold and endure.
I wonder how our political leaders will spin our allies’ new, illegal and immoral plans. For years, they have clung to the mantra of the two-state solution while Israel continued to make every effort to render this solution unfeasible. What will they say now? With what weasel words will they stay on the same page as our friends in the U.S. and Israel?
Netanyhu praises Trump for thinking outside the box. Here is an idea that Israel has spent billions on arms and propaganda to persuade people that it is dangerously outside the box. Instead of asking Egypt and Jordan to take the Palestinians, why not make Israel end the occupation and give Palestinians equal rights in their own homeland?
Sawsan Madina is former Head of SBS Television.