As part of its coverage of the Palestinian resistance operation that began last Saturday and its consequences, the Institute for Palestine Studies continues to follow what foreign observers and analysts are publishing about this operation and is also publishing analyses written by Israeli analysts for “Selections from the Hebrew Press.”
The following is the full text of an editorial published on October 9, 2023, by journalist and historian Alain Gresh, also the director of digital website Orient XXI. Initially in French, the editorial was translated to Arabic by Sara Grira, a journalist at Orient XXi.
What’s happening today also happened precisely fifty years ago in October 1973. The Egyptian and Syrian armies had crossed the ceasefire lines to inflict severe losses on the Israeli army, leaving Tel Aviv in shock. Despite having received intelligence indicating an imminent attack, the political leadership acted arrogantly: Would the Arabs, who were defeated in 1967, be capable of fighting? In the eyes of the Israelis, the occupation of Arab lands could have continued indefinitely and without any reaction.
"Is it considered an attack when someone tries to return to their home?"
At the time, many commentators in Europe and the United States condemned the unjust, unethical, and "unprovoked" Egyptian-Syrian "aggression." Israeli leaders are fond of this phrase, as it allows them to obscure the roots of the conflict, i.e., the occupation. Back then, French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert demonstrated an honorable awareness with regards to his country: "Is it considered an attack when someone tries to return to their home?" While the voice of Paris was hovering high above Western clamor, it affirmed that the recognition of the national rights of the Palestinians and the evacuation of the Arab territories occupied in 1967 are keys to peace.
If the desire to end the occupation of the Sinai and the Golan Heights was legitimate in 1973, how can the Palestinians' desire to liberate themselves from Israeli occupation be considered illegitimate today, fifty years later?
Just as in the October War, Tel Aviv was taken aback by the Palestinian initiative and suffered a military defeat of exceptional magnitude. And as in the October War, the occupier's arrogance, their contempt for Palestinians, and the conviction of the fanatical Jewish government that God is on their “side" contributed to its blindness.
The attack launched by the joint military leadership of most Palestinian organizations and led by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, was not only surprising due to its timing but also due to its size, organization, and military capabilities. These capabilities allowed, among other things, for the invasion of Israeli military bases. This operation unified all Palestinians and garnered widespread support in the Arab world, despite their leaders' efforts to normalize relations with Israel and sacrifice Palestine. Even Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, whose existence is primarily attributed to its security cooperation with the Israeli army, felt compelled to declare "the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves against settler terrorism and the occupation's forces" and the "necessity of providing protection to our people's children."
All of them are terrorists!
Every time the Palestinians revolt, the West - the same West that does not hesitate to praise the resistance of Ukrainians - invokes terrorism. Within that same tone, French President Emmanuel Macron "strongly condemned the terrorist attacks currently striking Israel," without uttering a word about the ongoing occupation, which is the source of the violence. The resilience of Palestinians remains steadfast and unbroken, shocking settlers and apparently shocking many in the West. As was the case during the First Intifada in 1987 or the Second Intifada in 2000, during armed resistance operations in the West Bank or mobilization for the sake of Jerusalem, and during confrontations in the Gaza Strip - under siege since 2007 and suffering six wars in 17 years (resulting in 400 casualties in 2006, 1,300 in 2008-2009, 160 in 2012, 2,100 in 2014, approximately 300 in 2021, and dozens in the spring of 2023), Israeli officials condemn the 'savagery' of their adversaries and their disregard for human life, or in other words, their 'terrorism.'
This accusation allows Israel’s actions to be disguised not only as legal but also, as moral, forgetting the brutal apartheid regime that oppresses Palestinians daily. Let us, once again, recall that a significant number of terrorist organizations have historically transitioned from being outcasts to legitimate actors. The Irish Republican Army (IRA), the National Liberation Front of Algeria (FLN), the African National Congress (ANC), and others were all initially labeled as “terrorists,” with the aim of undermining the political dimension of their fighting and portraying it as a struggle between the good and the evil. Eventually, all these groups became parties to negotiations. Following the Israeli aggression in June 1967, General de Gaulle speculated on the matter, saying: “Now Israel is establishing itself in the territories it occupied with an occupation that cannot exist without injustice, repression, and deportation. And on these lands, resistance appears against this occupation, described as terrorism.”
It is not an “unjustifiable” attack
Israeli journalist Haggai Matar once wrote: “Contrary to what many Israelis say (...), this is not a ‘one-sided’ or ‘unjustifiable’ attack. The fear that Israelis are feeling now - and I'm one of them - is just a small part of what Palestinians feel every day under decades of military rule in the West Bank, not to mention the recurring siege and assaults on Gaza. The responses we hear from many Israelis - those calling for the ‘destruction of Gaza’ and saying ‘they are savages, not people we can negotiate with,’ ‘they kill entire families,’ or ‘there's no room for dialogue with these people’ - are exactly what I've heard countless times from Palestinians about Israelis.”
We can indeed mourn, as in any war, the killing of civilians. But are there “good civilians” for whom we should shed tears, as opposed to others who are “bad,” like the Palestinians who are killed daily in the West Bank [and Gaza], and whose deaths hardly raise any voices of condemnation?
The number of Israeli casualties has reached 700 (and over 400 on the Palestinian side), which is more than those who died during the 1967 war against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. This operation will have repercussions on the regional, political, and geopolitical situation in a way which is difficult to assess at this time. However, what the current events once again affirm is that the occupation constantly fuels resistance for which the occupier alone bears responsibility.
As stated in Article 2 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, issued on August 26, 1789, the resistance to oppression is a fundamental right, one to which the Palestinians can justifiably lay claim.
* Orient XXI is an independent and ad-free French website that publishes articles about the Middle East and the Islamic world in French, English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Persian. It recently celebrated its tenth anniversary."
