I can’t hold off. I must speak about Israel and Palestine. I am not posting an image with this blog, however, because one image cannot do it justice and will inevitably favour one side over the other. 

I am angry and sad. 

I am angry with Hamas. I have a lot of sympathy for the Palestinian cause, but none for Hamas. It seems to me that Hamas put a much higher premium on what they see as profanation of the Al Aqsa mosque than they do against settler or IDF inhumanity towards ordinary Palestinian civilians. When religious symbols and religious supremacism trump compassion towards our fellow humans then we get to a very dark place (there are instances of that kind of behaviour among some Israelis as well, but I will get to that).

That’s even before I get to the obscenity of Hamas’s attack on and massacre of Israeli civilians, including children and moderate progressive Israeli advocates of peace and justice for Palestine. When I read the details of what Hamas did I am almost physically sick. Any pro-Palestinian who refuses to condemn these atrocities, let alone to cheer them, is outside the Pale. It must also be remembered that Hamas launched this attack knowing that it would provoke a blood bath against Gaza. That is not to absolve Israel of responsibility for its behaviour, but it remains a fact and it demonstrates Hamas’s disregard for the lives of ordinary Gazans. In addition, even if the accusations by Israel of Hamas using civilians as human shields are not always true, sometimes they are. And, whereas I don’t accept that anyone who supports aspects of the Palestinian cause, or supports BDS, can automatically be characterised as seeking the destruction of the Israeli State, I acknowledge that this is true of Hamas. Finally, whereas Israel is still relatively tolerant of critics within its country, Hamas ruthlessly quashes criticism within Gaza. 

But I am also angry with Israel. Some of Israel’s supporters - including Alan Shatter in Ireland - suggest that there is no scope to question its behaviour, that it can justify whatever it does simply by asserting, rather than proving, that its actions are necessary in self defence. And they evoke the spectre of the Holocaust in an effort to frighten off criticism. To suggest that the Holocaust gives Israel such carte blanche  is an insult to the memory of its victims. 

So no, Hamas’s atrocities do not justify bombing hospitals (I know there is dispute as to who is responsible for the latest hospital attack but Israel has hit civilian targets many times in the past and has frequently been caught out lying subsequently). They do not justify forcing civilians from their homes and then bombing them on the move. They do not justify depriving the ordinary people of Gaza of water. These are war crimes, as was Hamas’s attack, but it’s highly unlikely that anyone will ever face justice for them. And, just as some sick people are gloating over Hamas’s attack, the same is true of hardline pro-Israelis, who seem to believe that the Jewish people are inherently superior and above question. 

Just as is the case with Hamas, there lies behind these recent atrocities a pattern of bigotry, racism and abuse in much of Israel’s behaviour over decades. While I fully accept that comparison of its behaviour to the Nazis is gratuitously hurtful, offensive and simplistic, I don’t think that calling it an apartheid state is an exaggeration. In the occupied territories Israeli settlers receive favourable treatment on a daily basis. They can vote in elections, and in fact their voting record has been a malign force in Israeli politics. At the same time, Israel has effective jurisdiction over these territories but the majority of the inhabitants, who are Palestinian, have no democratic say over Israeli politics (the concept of the Palestinian State or the Palestinian Authority is meaningless at this point). That is the very essence of apartheid; I’m sorry. But there are many other manifestations, including the public transport systems, which merit comparison with Jim Crowe.

And then we come to the behaviour of Netanyahu himself. He has recklessly maintained power by whipping up antagonism against Israeli Arabs, and by courting hard-right Jewish fundamentalists. He has hollowed out Israeli parliamentary democracy and eroded the rule of law, even insofar as it applies to Israeli citizens. Above all, he has done this because he has a corrupt kleptocrat who would otherwise likely face jail. And he was so hell bent on doing it that his eye was off the ball when it came to Gaza, something Israelis are already beginning to realize.

I am sad because, despite my unreserved sympathy for all of the innocent victims, there are two sides in this conflict, and both sides have contributed to the suffering of their own people as well as their enemies. But I refuse to accept that, in order to demonstrate my sympathy with some victims, I must refrain from mentioning others, or from blaming the rulers on either side. Both sides behave as they do because they see themselves as superior to the other  

What I will say, however, is that many in the West are not responding in an even-handed manner. Any time Israelis are the victim of attacks we get harrowing reportage of relatives and we are invited to share in their grief. But Israelis do not have a monopoly on grief. Palestinian men, women and children are abused, and often killed, on a near daily basis by settlers in the occupied territories and by the IDF, and this rarely even gets a mention. The comments of Ursula von der Leyen this week are biased and ham-fisted. Even Joe Biden, although he is clearly trying to exercise caution and restraint, is firmly on Israel’s side when the chips are down. We also saw the petty, hateful cancellation by the Frankfurt Book Fair of an award ceremony for Adania Shibli, for her acclaimed novel Minor Detail, about the rape and murder of a Palestinan girl by Israelis in 1948.