To you, Jewish students at Quebec universities, who signed the letter “In our name”, In The duty of July 13, please know that I understand your dismay following the unfortunate events of October 7 in Israel. It was a surprise to everyone, given that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu was congratulating itself on being increasingly able to ensure perfect security for Israelis with its very harsh policies and measures directed against the Palestinian people. It was a show-off, like what this government and its far-right members have been doing since the latest Hamas attack. Starting with the use of the term “human animals” to refer to Gazans by the Israeli Minister of Defense, to the mass massacres perpetrated in the Gaza Strip where women, children, schools, supply convoys, hospitals, humanitarian workers, journalists, etc. are targeted indiscriminately.
I understand that the atrocities committed against “Jews”, especially when they take place in Israel itself, revive painful memories, because on the scale of human history, the extermination camps of the Third Reich date back only a few minutes.
What I understand less, however, is that in the series of grievances that you express in your letter, none concerns the “ordeal” that the Palestinians have been living since the creation of the State of Israel in 1947-1948. Whether it is the forced departure (the Nakba) of the villagers (who became “refugees”) from their native lands, the Occupation of what remained of their autonomous territory since 1967, the confinement within the Gaza Strip since 2005-2006, the illegal “Jewish” colonization, with complete impunity in the face of international law, of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and so on (destruction of houses, uprooting of thousands of olive trees, checkpoints which make normal daily life impossible, the condition of Palestinian prisoners, constant humiliation for being Arab or Muslim, etc.).
We cannot put in competition the traumas experienced by peoples throughout the history of humanity since hunter-gatherers, it is despicable. Even if their case is special, the Jews do not have the monopoly on suffering and although they have already come close to extermination, this does not protect them against the mistakes that they could commit in turn against other populations, the Palestinians for example.
Despite your Western academic culture, I am astonished to see that you fall into the same trap as certain ultra-religious Zionists who instrumentalize the Holocaust for “political” ends, using it as a shield against any attack directed against Israel, transforming a legitimate “criticism” of the power in place, the very foundation of the liberal democracy that the Jewish State claims to represent, into “anti-Semitic” insults, liable to be brought to justice.
You should know that international law cannot be based on “archaeological” criteria, much less “religious” ones. The fact that there was a “Jewish” presence in Palestine several millennia ago does not give the Jewish people precedence over other peoples, it is absurd!
Remains of “Viking” encampments have recently been discovered in Newfoundland, Canada, which date back to well before the arrival of the French and English. Will the Norwegians claim the right to colonize the east of the country on the grounds that their ancestors discovered America before Christopher Columbus? And if they have in their pantheon a god who assures them that they are a “separate” people, with “separate” rights, will the conditions be ripe for the outbreak of another war of occupation that will also drag on?
In short, I don’t know what field you study, but given the statements you make and the remarks you make, it seems obvious that a significant part of the political reality in the Middle East escapes you. Everything is approximate and smells terribly of reheated food. Your argument is based on ready-made ideas, clichés and even on the propaganda of the Netanyahu government, which is gangrened by the religious extreme right that has its eye on fascism and is in cahoots with Jewish supremacy.
You also ignore the proceedings against Israel on the international justice front. The International Criminal Court accuses the head of government of “war crimes” (or “crimes against humanity”), while the International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to do everything in its power to prevent and punish any act of genocide. You have a selective memory and subjective judgment.
We definitely don’t live in the same world…