Historical Palestine (or Israel within the borders it now controls including pre-1967 Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights) is one country with one water system, one electrical grid, one powerful military to defend and define its external borders, one monetary system, one telephone system, and one postal system.  It is already one state, although half the population has lesser rights or none at all.

Let’s compare the following two headlines (both from mainstream right-leaning Israeli publications):

2009-01-14 Overwhelming Israeli support of Gaza op: The Israeli military operation against Hamas in Gaza enjoys the overwhelming support of Israeli Jews despite the loss of civilian life in the Hamas-run territory, a survey released Wednesday showed. A whopping 94% of the public support or strongly support the operation while 92% think it benefits Israel’s security, according to the Tel Aviv University survey. The poll found that 92% of Israeli Jews justify the air force’s attacks in Gaza despite the suffering of the civilian population in the Strip and the damage they cause to infrastructure. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed during the 19-day old operation …

2010-07-07 2/3 of Palestinians against rocket attacks: Some 68% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza do not want Hamas to resume its rocket attacks on Israel, while 25.5% believe the attacks against Israel’s southern communities should be resumed, according to a survey conducted by the Ramallah-based Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) organization.

The poll’s findings, which are based on answers by 1,200 respondents, indicate that 35.4% of Palestinians residing in Hamas-ruled Gaza are interested in resuming the attacks, while only 19.5% of Palestinians in the West Bank share this opinion.

Ever since Hamas took over the Gaza strip, the result of its election by Palestinians in a democratic process, Israel and the west have taken to the collective punishment Gazans by withholding support, blockading the strip and bombing it from the air with conventional as well as chemical weapons, destroying much of the infrastructure and killing thousands of civilians.

Collective punishment is the least moral option reserved for people in conflict, since it hurts civilians and ignores the diversity of opinions in society. When is collective punishment permissible? When all other options don’t work, and when the community that is going to suffer doesn’t exhibit a wide range of attitudes to conflict resolution.

Based on the facts, I think it’s quite easy to see which nation has the moral high ground. Most Palestinians, despite the desperate situation they’re in, still object to targeting civilians in their struggle. Israelis, living a life of freedom and comfort, show wall-to-wall support for terrorism. Human lives are worth nothing to them, as long as these are not Jewish lives.

Which nation, then, is more deserving of collective punishment?

Casually reading the news, one might conclude that Israelis are all a bunch of racist lunatics, willing to take their vile ideology of Zionism beyond any border known to humanity. While to an approximation this is indeed the case, there are a few exceptions. Jonathan Shapira is one such good soul. A former pilot in Israel’s air force, Shapira was expelled from the force after declaring that he will refuse to carry out missions that have no moral or legal basis and has moved on to become one of Israel’s fiercest critics, fighting against the evils of Zionism tirelessly.

Today, in a brilliant act of protest, Shapira, together with a fellow activist from Poland, sprayed the remaining walls of the Warsaw Ghetto with the slogan (in Hebrew): “Free all Ghettos”. That ghetto in Warsaw, which saw one of the only uprisings by Jewish interns, has been freed many years ago. The ghetto Shapira is referring to is Gaza.

The link between the atrocities committed by the Nazis in Warsaw and the crimes committed now by Israel in Gaza is not Shapira’s invention. Rather, it is the essence of modern, secular Jewish nationalism. Israel has been using the Holocaust not only as international propaganda, but as an indoctrination tool. Israeli citizens are brainwashed from kindergarten with the idea that the holocaust is holy, and that it justifies the crimes Israel is committing for decades. When Israeli mothers send their children to the army, to terrorize the Palestinian population, it’s the holocaust that’s on their mind. It is the “moral” carte blanche of Zionism.

“It would be befitting that Israeli delegations will see that Israeli and international peace activists have been here before them and left a message”, says Shapira. In addition to the Hebrew slogan, they’ve also added “Free Gaza + Palestine” and hung the Palestinian flag.

Well done Jonathan Shapira! A few millions more like you and Israel might even deserve its place among civilised nations.