Synopsis: While supporting the fight against Hamas terrorism, I also oppose Israel’s inhumane blockade of Gaza. Any deliberate attempt to cause unnecessary harm to civilians cannot be tolerated. I believe that the only position and principle we can adopt on such a complex, highly controversial and deeply historical issue is humanitarianism.
I believe that many of my good friends who are concerned about the political and economic situation in the world, like me, are having a hard time sleeping and eating, and are anxious about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. I, myself, have been in great agony over the Israeli-Palestinian war over the past few days. Many of our friends do not know how to take a clear stand on such a complex and controversial issue with a painful historical background.
Personally, morally, I can neither stand entirely with Israel (given the history of the genocide of the Jews on the European continent in the early 20th century, the history of the forced occupation and expulsion of Palestinians by the Israeli government since the fall of the Nazis, and the reality), nor with Hamas (the terrorist regime occupying the Gaza Strip), nor with Fatah (the totalitarian Palestinian administration in the West Bank of Jordan), nor with the Palestinian Authority.
This is not like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for which there is a morally simple and correct answer: 100% support for Ukraine, support for Ukraine’s restoration of territories recognized under international law, including Crimea, and support for Ukraine’s aspirations to join the European Union and NATO, is our common choice. With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, without expecting Hamas to de-radicalize, the ideal solution should be reconciliation between Israel and Fatah, democratization of Fatah, and joint efforts to combat Hamas. However, this policy vision is very difficult to realize in a few words. I can only think of the possibilities offered by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of non-violent communication.
Until just now I read a statement by Emma Bonino, the former Italian Foreign Minister. She said, “I am a friend of Israel, but depriving Palestinian civilians of water and food is a war crime”. I realized what position I should take.
After leaving all the arguments behind, I suddenly realized that I am fundamentally a human being. Beyond all ideologies and grudges, the most basic and clear attitude is humanism. It is what Russell called “unquenchable sympathy for human suffering”. We should not forget why we are independent writers, political workers, human rights defenders, and why we believe in liberal democracy, human rights, and constitutionalism, but these are all just tactics used to enhance the overall well-being of mankind and to alleviate unnecessary suffering.
For the first time in the past few days, I have been in tears over the suffering of civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, regardless of their nationality, faith, identity, or identification, their suffering as human beings is real. I believe I am fundamentally a humanitarian.
To me, humanitarianism does not mean being against killing at all times. Humanitarianism does not mean anti-war or pacifism or cutting military spending. Humanitarianism means the alleviation of all unnecessary suffering. Self-defense is a fundamental right. When liberal democracy faces the threat of totalitarianism from Russia and China, it is necessary to increase the military strength of liberal democracies in order to achieve strategic deterrence. Killing in self-defense is justified.
Why do we support civil rights? Why do we support abortion rights, LGBT rights, sex worker rights, euthanasia rights? Why do we think the development of painkillers and birth control pills is the greatest invention of the 20th century? Because the suffering of pregnant women, the suffering of LGBT people, the suffering of sex workers, the suffering of the terminally ill, the suffering of women who want to enjoy having sex but are afraid of getting pregnant, and the suffering of people who suffer from physical pain is unnecessary. I’ll say it again: humanism to me means working to alleviate all non-essential suffering.
Yet sealing off cities is unacceptable, both strategically and morally. The closure of the city will not help strategically to fight Hamas terrorism. Can Hamas terrorism not be completely defeated without sealing the city, by virtue of Israel’s overwhelming military superiority over Hamas? The closure of the city is still a moral and humanitarian disaster for the civilians living in Gaza. The suffering inflicted on innocent civilians is unjustified and unnecessary.
It reminds me of the siege of Changchun in 1948, when the Chinese Communists imposed a five-month blockade on Changchun during the armed subversion of the Republic of China’s state power. According to Lung Ying-tai, 1st Minister of Culture of the Republic of China(Taiwan), in The Great River and the Sea 1949, a total of 450 000 to 600 000 civilians were starved to death during this period, which was exactly the number of Chinese people killed by the Japanese in the Nanjing Massacre.
Please do not misunderstand me. I remain steadfast in my support for liberal democracies exercising Israel’s right to self-defense. But as Emma Bonino has said, sealing off a city causes immense and irreversible harm to innocent civilians, and is a war crime against humanity, against humanity, against humanity. With all due respect, if the Israeli authorities can’t argue why the closure of the city is necessary as a tactic against Hamas, Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is a form of state terrorism that is in fact no different from Hamas’s. Please abandon the use of Machiavellian rhetoric.
Please abandon the Machiavellian attitude. Please do not use the same tactics as terrorism in the pursuit of freedom, democracy, human rights, constitutionalism, peace, unification, self-defense and counter-terrorism. We all know the history of how the Chinese Communist Party changed from a revolutionary and progressive party to a dictatorial and reactionary party. Make no mistake, I have no illusions that Hamas can be de-radicalized without violence.
However, the closure of the city might help to flatten Gaza into a hell on earth and make the Hamas active in Gaza disappear. However, it will leave permanent hatred and scars in the hearts of ordinary Palestinians. Palestinian anger will only be ignited on the West Bank of the Jordan River. Perhaps, strategically, it would instead polarize the otherwise moderate Fatah as well. And then Israel will need to defend its national security by destroying the West Bank once and for all.
There is absolutely no need for, and we steadfastly refuse, more humanitarian disasters.
I am a powerless person, I am a citizen of the world. This is my personal statement.
Attachment:
“The right for self defense has to be done within international law,” the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said Tuesday following a specially convened virtual meeting of EU foreign ministers.
“Some of the actions [by Israel] — and the United Nations has already said it — cutting water, cutting electricity, cutting food to a mass of civilian people, is against international law. So yes, there are some actions that are not in accordance with international law,” he said.
Statement by Emma Bonino, former Italian Foreign Minister
https://www.lastampa.it/politica/2023/10/10/news/emma_bonino_intollerabile_colpire_i_civili_a_gaza_questi_sono_crimini_di_guerra- 13773584/
Wikipedia on the Siege of Changchun
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Changchun
Rainbow Pie 
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