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The disease of colonial colonialism and apartheid in Gaza

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When a rubber bullet pierces a child’s eye in the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem and a woman in a “water jet,” a cocktail of chemicals that smell like rotten eggs and sewer, the acts of violence and dehumanization are clear. Palestinians. But the oppression that Palestinians suffer at the hands of Israel is not limited to such attacks.

There are many structures of exclusion and discrimination that govern the lives of Palestinians and, like the violence they face on a daily basis, they affect health and well-being. Everyone needs a humanitarian response from organizations like Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

However, when MSF fixes a wound, cares for a COVID-19 patient, provides mental health care, or receives trauma in an emergency room, we do not treat patients in a political vacuum. We are dealing with the effects of colonialism and apartheid on the settlers, and we have no cure for that.

Colonialism of settlers, forced displacement of Palestinians, and rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank occur in the context of the longest military occupation in history, now more than 70 years old. Colonial colonialism involves moving to the territory where the citizens of the occupying powers take over. This has been happening in Palestine since 1948 and the expropriation of Palestinians from their land in the Sheikh Jarrah district is the latest example of this ongoing process.

Palestinians are forcibly displaced and isolated in enclaves governed by rules that ensure constant expropriation and domination. The oppressive rules governing the lives of Palestinians do not apply to settlers living in the mountains above or in the adjacent confiscated houses. This is apartheid in real time.

Humanitarian organizations such as the WSF have difficulty addressing the root causes of humanitarian crises. We are an emergency organization, an ambulance for NGOs. This makes us ill-suited to dealing with socioeconomic and political conditions designed to enrich a class authority. But from this ambulance we see how colonialism and apartheid affect the health of our patients and how they need our work.

An MSF clinic in Gaza was damaged in a May 15 Israeli air strike [Courtesy of MSF]

For example, just a few months ago, MSF medical teams saw how they included the Israeli population while Palestinians living in the occupied territories were deliberately excluded. Every day, our patients are denied access to health care due to controls, barriers, permit requirements, discrimination, economic collapse, and destruction caused by permanent occupation.

To date, our humanitarian action is not necessary in Israel, because even when rockets are fired at civilian sites, people have to protect their health and the state.

The crime of apartheid is defined as “human actions aimed at the domination of a racial group over any other racial group and the systematic oppression of them.” Today, Israel, designed, is the sole governmental power or the first control over the Palestinians from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea; His policies towards the Palestinian people undoubtedly constitute apartheid.

Israel’s apartheid policy has expropriated, besieged, killed, maimed, imprisoned and orphaned Palestinians without the backing of some Western governments.

Palestinians are banned from walking on “Israeli-only” roads and are barred from crossing certain checkpoints without proper permission. They result in the arrest and torture of children as usual. They allow Palestinians to be forced out of their homes. They protect Israeli armed settlers and allow non-violent use against Palestinians.

This reality has been denounced by Palestinians and has been acknowledged by civil society groups, lawyers, human rights organizations and many others. Only the authors and their sponsors discuss it.

In the last week, bombs have continued to fall on Gaza, killing about 198 people, including many members of the MSF staff family. An MSF clinic is damaged and ambulances are barely able to cross the bomb craters on the road leading to al-Shifa main hospital. Elsewhere in Palestine, protesters continue to beat, beat and shoot with rubber bullets.

The WSF will continue to treat the wounds of this violence, but it will only come to an end with colonialism and apartheid to cure Palestinian suffering.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of Al Jazeera’s editorial.



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