Tag: Gaza

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Les bellicistes de gauche et de droite

Le monde regarde avec horreur l’une des armées les plus avancées de la planète détruire une zone urbaine enclavée, pour l’essentiel sans défense, comme on tire sur des poissons dans un tonneau1. Il n’est pas étonnant que l’indignation soit générale et que le monde entier réclame l’arrêt de cette folie. Mais plutôt que d’arrêter la guerre, de nombreux gauchistes veulent la poursuivre, au côté du Hamas. Et ils veulent que nous ignorions les violences commises par leur camp contre des innocents parce qu’elles ont été commises pour une bonne cause. Etait-ce le cas ?

Les apologistes du Hamas affirment que son armée est composée de combattants de la liberté autochtones, s’élevant contre une puissance coloniale, et que l’histoire des guerres coloniales montre que ces conflits sont inévitablement brutaux, faisant de nombreuses victimes innocentes des deux côtés. Il appartient aux “combattants de la liberté” de décider de la manière dont ils mènent leur lutte, affirment-ils, et ceux qui soutiennent la libération du “peuple palestinien” ne devraient pas remettre en question leurs méthodes. Surtout pas s’ils sont blancs et vivent dans des pays qui eurent eux-mêmes des colonies. La honte du comportement passé ou présent de “leurs” pays doit faire taire toute pensée critique sur les tactiques et les objectifs de la lutte “anticoloniale”.  

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WARMONGERS LEFT AND RIGHT

The world watches in horror as one of the most advanced armies on earth is destroying a mostly defenseless enclosed urban zone, like shooting fish in a barrel. No wonder there is widespread outrage and a worldwide demand to stop this madness. But rather than to stop the war, many leftists want to continue it, on the side of Hamas. And they want us to ignore the violence against innocents committed by their side because it was done for a good cause. Was it?

The apologists of Hamas claim that its army are indigenous freedom fighters rising up against a colonial power and that the history of colonial wars shows that these conflicts are inevitably brutal, with many innocent victims on both sides. It is up to the ‘freedom fighters” to decide how they wage their struggle, they claim, and those who support the liberation of “the Palestinian people” should not question their methods. Especially not if they are white and living in countries which had colonies themselves. Shame about the past or present behavior of “their” countries should silence any critical thought on the tactics and goals of the “anti-colonial” struggle. They are not well placed “to hand out moral lessons to the resistance.”  

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CAPITALISM’S DEATH WORLD

A Banksy mural in Gaza

On the very first day of Hamas’ sadistic rampage, the Israeli authorities took to the microphones to declare to the world that this was Israel’s 9/11. And indeed, there are some striking similarities. Between the tactics and goals of Al Qaeda and Hamas, as well as between the imperialist opportunities their actions created for the US and Israel.

Both Al Qaeda and Hamas attacked civilians indiscriminately. Both are guided by an Islamist ideology1, based on myths of a glorious past and an even better future in heaven, feeding on the anger and resentment that poverty, repression, and discrimination amply produce. What do they want? A real state, a vast territory under their control, ruled not by “the people” but by themselves, a state that imprisons and tortures anyone who dares to disagree (as Hamas does in Gaza), claiming their authority cannot be challenged because it is sanctified by religious dogma. They have utter contempt for human life, including sometimes their own. They are a clear expression of the death culture that capitalism in this epoch produces. They are racist, not in the strict sense of classifying people on the basis of skin color, but in the broader meaning of dehumanizing people on the basis of their “otherness”, the conditions under which they are born, like their ethnicity or culture.  

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