Breathe
By Cristina Gutiérrez
In recent days, it has come to my attention that when talking about the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, many people are unaware of what, in my view, is the central fact that originates it: the illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In Mexico, either because of our geographical remoteness or simply because of lack of information, there are many people who are not familiar with the reality in which the Palestinians live in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. But beyond this lack of knowledge, I have been struck by the existence of people around me who deny the existence of the occupation, that is, the deniers of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
According to the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE), denialism is the "attitude that consists in the denial of certain realities and relevant historical or natural facts" and, in the vast majority of cases, the concept of denialism applies to the Holocaust. And the fact is that, implausible as it may seem to us, there are people who claim that the Holocaust never happened as such and that any recorded deaths of Jews under Nazi rule were the result of war and not of systematic persecution and mass murder organized by the State. Clearly, it is incredible that there are people who deny the fact that six million Jews were exterminated and that Jews in World War II were victims of an inhumane genocide like few others in human history. That is a fact.
It is also a fact that since the occupation of the Palestinian territories began in 1967, Israel's relentless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlements and widespread discrimination have inflicted immense suffering on the Palestinian population, stripping them of their fundamental rights. Over the past 50 years, Israel has carried out evictions and forced displacements of entire Palestinian communities, rendering thousands of Palestinians homeless and instead building settlements or colonies of Israelis in the occupied territories. Israeli authorities have demolished hundreds of Palestinian structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to replace them with Israeli settlements and year by year the number increases considerably. According to Amnesty International, the very existence of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories violates international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime.
There are more than 170 Israeli military blockade points, checkpoints or roadblocks scattered throughout the West Bank, which restrict freedom of movement and make it difficult for the Palestinian population to move about to perform basic tasks such as working, studying or simply meeting with others. Israel has also built a 700-kilometer-long fence/wall across the West Bank, thus isolating many Palestinian communities, depriving them of access to basic services and separating farmers from their land, severely damaging the Palestinian economy. Israel also controls and restricts Palestinians' access to drinking water.
One of the main policies under occupation against Palestinian society is the policy of administrative detention, a procedure that allows Israeli occupation forces to detain prisoners indefinitely on the basis of secret information, without charge or trial. Those detained under this procedure can be held for years without ever knowing the cause of detention and include women and children, some as young as 12 years old. Imprisonment in occupied territories is used as an act of control against the entire society and is one of the pillars of the occupation.
In 2007, Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza which, in addition to being contrary to international law, represents a massive violation of the human rights of the population. In practice, the blockade prevents the exchange of goods and services, as well as the freedom to leave or enter Gaza. The restrictions imposed by the blockade have had a significant impact on the lives of the inhabitants of Gaza, limiting access to food, medicines and basic services. They have also negatively affected the region's economy and have led to high rates of unemployment and poverty. The more than two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are "locked up" in what is considered "the world's largest open-air prison."
What has been happening between Israel and Palestine since the Hamas attacks on October 7 is not new. The conflict has been simmering for decades and will continue to simmer as long as there is no significant change in the status quo. Hamas has taken advantage of this to carry out heinous acts of terrorism against the Israeli civilian population, which is unforgivable and unjustifiable. Terrorism is not and will never be the solution. I think we all, or at least most of us, agree on that. But starting from this fact, we must not lose sight of another equally important fact, which is that the Palestinian territories have been illegally occupied for more than 50 years.
In 2022, a UN Commission of Inquiry report ruled that this occupation is illegal under international law and that "by continuing to occupy Palestinian territory by force, Israel incurs international responsibilities and continues to violate the rights of the Palestinians individually and as a people."
These are facts. We can be in favor of one or the other in this conflict based on our experience, our sympathy or our very personal value system but, just as denying that the holocaust occurred is ridiculous and unthinkable, so is denying the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Facts are facts, let's not be deniers of reality.
Cristina Gutiérrez has a degree in International Trade from Tecnológico de Monterrey. She has worked mainly in areas of logistics and foreign trade. For the past 10 years or so she has studied extensively on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and in 2015 she organized the conference "Palestine Beyond Zionism" with Israeli activist Miko Peled.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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