There is No Getting Around It: This Is Apartheid, by Kenn Orphan

Image by socialistalternative via Flickr

by Kenn Orphan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Halifax, Nova Scotia
May 16, 2021

I suspect some of you may be tired of my posts on Israel/Palestine this last week, especially on social media. I would say I am sorry if I was, but I am not. Not in the least. I have stood shoulder to shoulder with Palestinians, as well as their allies, including many, many Jews and even many Israelis, for most of my adult life. And until apartheid ends and as long as I have a voice that isn’t censored, I will not cease speaking out. So here are my latest thoughts…

I have noticed some striking parallels with this past year’s major topic of American police state violence against mostly Black and Brown people and Israel’s ongoing oppression/ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. In fact, Israel’s “self defense” narrative sounds an awful lot like American police when they tell Black people to “stop resisting” as they kneel on their necks. But let’s be clear, this is not a defense, it is the usual brutalization of a captive population that has no means of escape. An open air prison where vicious collective punishment is meted out liberally. And remember, half of Gaza are children.

They have no army, navy or air force. They barely have a few hours of electricity each day and medicine is in short supply. Most of the water in Gaza is undrinkable thanks to Israeli bombing of infrastructure. All of this is because of the inhuman decade long blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt and supported by the United States.

It’s time to realize that it is, in fact, the United States, along with Canada, the EU, the UK, and Australia, that this is allowed to continue. Israel, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are colonial client states in the region. The US is not a puppet here, it is the puppet master.

Today is the eve of the Nakba, or the Catastrophe, where thousands of Palestinians were massacred in their villages by Zionist militias and at least 750,000 were expelled from their ancestral lands in the years leading up to 1948. It should not be seen as a mistake then that this was the date that was chosen. History has demonstrated that the oppressor uses demoralization as a weapon in much the same way as torture, night raids and outright massacres.

According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch, Israel is an apartheid state. There is no getting around this, just as there is no getting around the fact that this is not a “conflict” between equals. Israel is far more powerful and has the backing of the American Empire, the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. It is time to stop the lying and obfuscation of world leaders and the corporate media that parrots them.

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Kenn Orphan is a writer, artist, antiwar and anti-capitalist activist, hospice social worker and radical nature lover living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As an independent writer and artist Kenn Orphan depends on donations and commissions. If you would like to support his work and his blog you can do so via PayPal. He may be contacted at KennOrphan.com.

Previously published on Kenn Orphan, May 15, 2021

From the archives:

Chris Hedges: Israel Is Carrying Out Mass Murder

Enough is Enough: It is Time for Apartheid to End, by Kenn Orphan

Abby Martin: Gaza Fights For Freedom (2019)

Dismantling the Settler Colonial State of Israel, by Yanis Iqbal

Occupied Palestine: In The Shadow Of The Pandemic, by Yanis Iqbal

Israel Is Becoming Terrified of The U.S. Empire’s Decline, by Rainer Shea + Strange Slow Dance Between Israel and The Gulf States, Despite Annexation

Chris Hedges: The Colonial War on Palestine

Chris Hedges: The Long, Disingenuous Role The US Has Played In The Israel-Palestine Conflict