2018-07-17 載於公庫

圖：2014年遭以色列轟炸後的加薩拜哈農(Beit Hanoun)鎮（攝影：B’Tselem）

連署網址：https://goo.gl/FjYpAK

自2018年3月30日起，巴勒斯坦示威者朝加薩走廊東部的邊境前進，並主張，在1948年以色列立國後，遭軀逐出自身土地和故鄉的巴勒斯坦難民之返鄉權利。以色列佔領軍則是發射實彈和催淚彈對付為返鄉而遊行、不具武裝的巴勒斯坦抗議者，以及置身現場的醫師和急救護理人員。據國際特赦組織所述，「以色列對巴勒斯坦抗議者進行謀殺攻擊，以其武裝軍力殺害和殘害對以色列士兵不具立即威脅的巴勒斯坦示威者」。加薩衛生部指出，至2018年6月5日，以色列的鎮壓已造成123人死亡，近14,000人受傷。此等殺戮又再次使以色列佔領巴勒斯坦的反動性質原形畢露。
以色列自2007年起便封鎖加薩的領海、領陸、領空以切斷此一巴勒斯坦領土與外界的接觸。該非法封鎖意在集體懲罰，它不僅限制了這個貧困巴勒斯坦領土的進口（這也包括迫切需要的醫療用品和器材）和出口，也限制了人員從此一受圍困領土的進出。依據《日內瓦第四公約》第三十三條，集體懲罰平民即構成戰爭罪。

除了以封鎖宰制加薩全體居民，以色列自2008年12月起，已經由空襲、艦砲砲擊和地面侵略對人口稠密的加薩發動3次主要攻擊。據聯合國戈德史東報告（the Goldstone Report）描述，以色列軍方殘忍、屈辱、貶低對待巴勒斯坦平民意在「震懾、威嚇和羞辱」巴勒斯坦全體居民。

以色列佔領軍以破壞民用基礎設施和住家作為集體懲罰的方式，此一政策想方設法使人在加薩幾乎難以生存。依據聯合國國家工作隊在2017年的報告，「在2014年7月8日至8月26日的51天期間，共有2,251名巴勒斯坦人遭到殺害，171,000戶住家遭到破壞，其中17,800戶住家成了根本無法住人的斷垣殘壁，並導致10萬人因此流離失所。」不難看出，許多因此無處安身的人，原先已是難民，而現在面臨衛生設備不良、燃料嚴重短缺、以及水和糧食安全欠缺，處境更形嚴峻。而聯合國貿易和發展會議對此亦有類以觀點，2014年的以色列攻擊「衝擊已遭癱瘓的加薩經濟，而當時加薩的社經情境已達到1967年來的最低點。」僅管如此，以色列統治菁英卻不諱言，屠戮加薩人無非只是在加薩「除草」。

因非法封鎖持續存在加薩的經濟崩潰和社會崩壞也無休止。為對加薩全境造成損害，以色列自2017年6月11日起已將對加薩領土之供電減少至每日僅剩2至3小時，一如國際特赦組織於2017年6月17日指出，電力中斷「會對加薩危惙的基礎設施造成災難性衝擊」，如供水和污水處理，並導致「公共衛生劫難。此事會危及醫院慢性病情況或需要加護病房的病人，這也包括需要維生系統的嬰兒」。

聯合國近東巴勒斯坦難民救濟及工程處指出，實際情況更為雪上加霜，加薩「經濟和創造工作的能力遭受重創，使得具有高度技術、受過良好教育的社會落入貧困和去發展化」。以色列強加於加薩全體居民的折磨從急遽升高的失業率和巴勒斯坦人得依賴國際人道援助方能存活的數字可見一斑。 依據世界銀行數據， 2017年間加薩的失業率已攀升至44%，「年齡在15歲至29歲間者，失業率更高達60%」此外，依賴聯合國近東巴勒斯坦難民救濟及工程處食物救助維生的巴勒斯坦人更從「2000年的少於8萬人增加至今日的近於百萬人」。

除了造成生活困頓、死亡、煎熬和破壞，以色列更經由強化殘民以逞的封鎖而使加薩不適合人居住。負責巴勒斯坦佔領區的聯合國國家工作隊於2017年7月發布一份名為「加薩：十年之後」的報告，這份報告指出「儘管聯合國於2012年已提出警告，加薩仍持續走向去發展化之路，而在許多方面速度皆比聯合國原先的推估更快。持續的人道援助和國際服務供給，尤其是聯合國近東巴勒斯坦難民救濟及工程處所提供的服務，雖可減緩此一沉淪，但走下坡的情況依舊明顯。」該報告並強調，加薩的含水土層因受到未經處理的污水、高濃度硝酸鹽和海水污染，在2017年已不堪使用。Robert Piper時任巴勒斯坦佔領區聯合國人道救助協調官，在2017年7月11日接受路透社訪問時申明，「說到加薩的不堪居住……加薩達到不堪住人的水平為時已久。」簡言之，加薩的水無法飲用。加薩人受困於這個露天監獄，飲用遭污染的水時即遭毒害。2017年的聯合國報告彰顯了加薩巴勒斯坦人於社會、經濟、身體、心理層面長期飽受折磨，情況已為自1967年起前所未見。若說封鎖和以色列的佔領已將加薩轉變成世界上最大的隔都（ghetto）和死亡營也未言過其實。

對此，以色列總理Benjamin Netanyahu非但不終結11年的封鎖和70年的佔領及剝奪，反倒於2017年要求解散聯合國近東巴勒斯坦難民救濟及工程處。不過，以色列的帝國主義盟邦對此一立場則是漠然不應，而這些盟友先前卻常以人道理由為戰爭、政權更替和干涉開脫。帝國主義政權及其設立於大學的人權研究機構對以色列佔領巴勒斯坦的殘虐寂靜無聲，使得假人權之名在國外發動戰爭之事昭然若揭。

任何一個具有敏銳良知的人皆可自行判斷，以色列蓄意使加薩生靈塗炭是否構成了種族滅絕。我們所說的種族滅絕，系指《防止及懲治種族滅絕罪公約》第二條所示，
蓄意全部或局部消滅某一民族、人種、種族或宗教團體，犯有下列行為之一者：
（甲）殺害該團體之成員；
（乙）致使該團體之成員在身體上或精神上遭受嚴重傷害；
（丙）故意使該團體處於某種生活狀況下，以毀滅其全部或局部之生命……。

Malcolm X曾道：「我們主張在這個世界……身而為人的權利，被當人來尊重，以及在此世界、在此社會、在此時此刻被賦予人的權利，而我們會以一切必要手段促使它實現。」巴勒斯坦人有權利以一切必要手段打破美國所支持的以色列佔領和種族滅絕之封鎖。我們要求以色列立即解除對加薩的封鎖，並結束長達70年的佔領和剝奪。我們要求美國和英國停止武裝和資助非法的以色列佔領和錫安主義壓迫。我們與我們的巴勒斯坦姊妹及兄弟團結一致，主張巴勒斯坦難民及其後裔返回歷史上的巴勒斯坦（即現今以色列）之權利。

共同發起團體及個人：

北海岸反核行動聯盟
江櫻梅，新北市立金山高中退休教師
巫宗霖，民營企業主管
李元薇，東吳大學人權學程助教
汪英達，桃園市群眾服務協會移工服務暨庇護中心主任
周世瑀，英國雪菲爾大學政治學博士
林封良，國立交通大學社會與文化研究所博士
陳信行，世新大學社會發展研究所副教授
陳政亮，世新大學社會發展研究所副教授
陳瑤華，東吳大學哲學系教授
馮建三，國立政治大學新聞系教授
楊淳嫻，國立交通大學社會與文化研究所博士
葉嘉彬，資訊科技工程師
劉紀蕙，國立交通大學社會與文化研究所教授兼所長
龔維正，華梵大學哲學系助理教授

A Joint Statement in Solidarity with the Great March of Return

Beit Hanoun, August 2014, after Israeli bombardments (Photo: BTselem)

Since 30 March 2018, Palestinian demonstrators have been approaching the Gaza Strip’s eastern border and demanding the right of return for Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their homes and country after the founding of Israel in 1948. In response, the Israeli Occupation Forces have fired live ammunition and tear gas on both unarmed Palestinian demonstrators, marching to return, and physicians along with paramedics, attending the scene. In the words of Amnesty International, ‘Israel is carrying out a murderous assault against protesting Palestinians, with its armed forces killing and maiming demonstrators who pose no imminent threat to them [Israeli soldiers].’ According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, as of 5 June 2018, Israel’s repression left 123 dead and approximately 14,000 injured. The killings exposed one again the reactionary character of the Israeli military occupation of Palestine.  

Israel has imposed a land, sea, and air blockade of Gaza since 2007 to cut the occupied Palestinian territory off from the outside world. Intended as a form of collective punishment, this illegal blockade has restricted not only imports (including urgently needed medical supplies and equipment) to and exports from the impoverished Palestinian territory but also freedom of movement into and out of the beleaguered enclave. Under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the collective punishment of civilians constitutes a war crime.

In addition to subjugating the entire population of Gaza with the blockade, Israel has launched three major assaults against the densely populated Palestinian territory through aerial and naval bombardment and ground invasion since December 2008. The inhumane, humiliating, and degrading treatment of Palestinian civilians inflicted by the Israeli military, as described by the Goldstone Report, was meant to ‘terrorize, intimidate and humiliate’ the entire population of Gaza.

Being a form of collective punishment, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and homes by the Israeli Occupation Forces was a deliberate policy designed to make life in Gaza virtually unlivable. According to a 2017 report by a UN country team, ‘during these 51 days [between 8 July and 26 August 2014], 2,251 Palestinians … were killed, and 171,000 homes were damaged - 17,800 of them rendered completely uninhabitable and displacing their 100,000 inhabitants.’ It is not difficult to see that internally displaced Palestinians, many of whom had previously been refugees, have been adversely affected by poor sanitation, acute fuel shortages, as well as water and food insecurity. A report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) similarly revealed that the 2014 Israeli assault ‘impacted an already paralyzed economy at a time when socioeconomic conditions were at their lowest since 1967.’ Despite these, the Israeli ruling elite has made no bones about the killing of Gazans amounting to nothing but ‘mowing the lawn’ in Gaza.

As the illegal blockade has remained in place, there is no end to the economic breakdown and social devastation of Gaza. From 11 June 2017 onwards, Israel has further reduced electricity supply to the Palestinian enclave to two or three hours a day in order to wreak havoc across Gaza. As indicated by Amnesty International on 14 June 2017, power outages ‘will have a disastrous impact on Gaza’s battered infrastructure’ (ie water supply and sewage treatment) and ‘cause a public health disaster. The move will also endanger … hospital patients with chronic conditions or in intensive care, including babies on life support.’

To compound the problem, Gaza’s ‘economy and its capacity to create jobs have been devastated, resulting in the impoverishment and de-development of a highly skilled and well-educated society’, as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) pointed out. The misery afflicting the entire population of Gaza is clearly reflected in soaring unemployment and the number of Palestinians who rely upon international humanitarian aid for survival. According to the World Bank, unemployment in Gaza rose to 44 percent in 2017, and ‘more than 60 percent of those aged between 15 and 29 in Gaza are out of work.’ Moreover, the number of Palestinians who depend upon UNRWA for food aid has increased from ‘fewer than 80,000 in 2000 to almost one million today’.

In addition to causing immiseration, deaths, suffering, and destruction, Israel has rendered Gaza uninhabitable by further tightening the debilitating blockade. In July 2017, the United Nations Country Team in the occupied Palestinian territory issued a report entitled ‘Gaza: Ten Years Later’, enunciating that ‘despite the warnings issued by the UN in 2012, Gaza has continued on its trajectory of de-development, in many cases even faster than the UN had originally projected. Ongoing humanitarian assistance and international service delivery, especially through UNRWA’s services, are helping slow this descent, but the downward direction remains clear.’ The report additionally underscored the fact that contaminated by untreated sewage, high levels of nitrates, and seawater, Gaza’s aquifer would become unusable by 2017. On 11 July 2017, Robert Piper, who served as the UN humanitarian aid coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, explained the report in an interview with Reuters that ‘talk[ing] about the unlivability of Gaza ... that unlivability threshold has been passed quite a long time ago.’ In plain terms, Gaza’s water is undrinkable. Trapped in an open-air prison, Gazans are being poisoned as they drink contaminated water. The 2017 UN report illustrated the long-term social, economic, physical, and psychological suffering endured by Palestinians in Gaza not seen since 1967. It is no exaggeration to state that the siege and the Israeli military occupation have turned the Gaza Strip into the World’s largest ghetto and death camp.

Instead of ending Israel’s 11 years of siege and 70 years of occupation and dispossession, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the dismantling of UNRWA in 2017. Such a stance, however, elicited little response from Israel’s imperialist allies that had constantly invoked humanitarian concerns to justify war, regime change, and intervention. The deafening silence of imperialist powers and their university-based human rights research institutes over the shocking brutality of the Israeli occupation of Palestine cast a revealing light on waging war abroad under the fraudulent pretense of human rights.

Anyone with a clear conscience can judge for herself or himself whether the conditions of immense human suffering deliberately inflicted on the entire population of Gaza by Israel constitute genocide. By genocide, we refer specifically to Article two of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, denoting:

any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part….

As Malcolm X said, ‘We declare our right on this earth to be … a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.’ Palestinians have every right to break free of the stranglehold of the US-backed Israeli occupation and genocidal blockade by any means necessary. We demand Israel to immediately lift the siege of Gaza and to end its 70 years of occupation and dispossession. We demand the US and the UK to stop arming and subsidizing the illegal Israeli occupation and Zionist oppression. We stand in solidarity with our Palestinian sisters and brothers who demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to historic Palestine, what is now Israel.  

Signed,

North Coast Anti-nuclear Action Alliance, Taiwan

Chiang Ying-Mei, retired teacher from New Taipei Municipal Jin-Shan High School, Taiwan

Tsung-Lin Wu, Corporate Manager, Taiwan 

Yuan-Wei Lee, Teaching Assistant for Undergraduate Program in Human Rights, Soochow University, Taiwan

Lennon Ying-Dah Wong, Director, Service Center and Shelter for Migrant Workers, Serve the People Association (SPA), Taiwan

Shih-Yu Chou, PhD in Politics from Sheffield University and worker, Taiwan

Feng Liang Lin, PhD from Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

Hsin-Hsing Chen, Associate Professor, Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, Shih-Hsin University, Taiwan

Chen, Cheng-Liang, Associate Professor, Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, Shih-Hsin University, Taiwan 

Jau-hwa Chen, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Soochow University, Taiwan

Chien-san Feng, Professor, Department of Journalism, National Chengchi University, Taiwan

Chun-hsien Yang, PhD from Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

Yeh, Jia-Bin, IT engineer, Taiwan

Joyce C.H. Liu, Professor and Chair, Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

Wei-cheng Kung, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Huafan University, Taiwan