The tale “David and Goliath” came to my mind while watching the BBC’s interview with Husam Zomlot, the Head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, on Hamas’ attack on Israel. (Photo: BBC)
The famous ancient tale “David and Goliath” appears in all three Abrahamic holy books, the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an. The tale depicts a young shepherd named David, who courageously confronts the Philistine giant warrior, Goliath. Armed only with a sling and a few stones, David, who was unlike his brothers not even conscripted into the army because of his frailty, defeated the heavily armed Goliath in a one-on-one battle with a one hit to the giant’s head. The roles reversed, and David became the prophet, also the King of Israel.
The tale has become a narrative, a symbol of underdogs prevailing against giants and came to my mind especially while watching the BBC’s interview with Husam Zomlot, the Head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, on Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Presenter Lewis Vaughan Jones’ questions had one purpose: To get the Palestinian representative to condemn Hamas. Zomlot looked worried that a condemnation of Hamas for killing Israeli civilians would legitimize an attack on all Palestinians. He was not overwhelmed by this difficult situation, he did not make a scene but calmly made the BBC presenter almost regret asking the question.
Perhaps to remind the dialogue would help.
The interview with Jones and Zomlot
Jones: Do you support what Hamas launched on Saturday morning?
Zomlot: This is not the right question.
J: It is an important question.
Z: No it is not an important question because…
J: Whether you support their action or not is an important question.
Z: No no no no. It is not an important question. Hamas is a group; is a militant group, you are talking with the Palestinian representative our position is very well known and clear
J: What is that? Do you support Hamas’ actions?
Z: You cannot equate. This is not about support or not support. I am here to represent my people, the Palestinian people, what they are going through. I am not here to condemn anybody. And if anybody that needs to be condemned, it is what you call the only democracy in the Middle East that is Israel. Between parentheses that is doing what you have just reported, targeting civilians and this has not just happened the last 48 hours.
“Hamas is not the Palestinian government”
J: Hamas was just targeting Palestinians, but you won’t condemn that?
Z: I’ll tell you one thing. Hamas is not the Palestinian government. OK? The Israeli government is giving all these orders for its organized army. So please don’t draw any symmetry here. Don’t equate. There is no way you can draw any symmetry. Don’t equate between the occupied and the occupier. This doesn’t serve justice to understand for your audience and viewers the real situation. Since Israel’s establishment, it has had one military doctrine: when it fights it goes and fight civilians, kill civilians, so they pressure the fighters. Since 1948 and go back to the record and this has been repeated in Gaza. And will continue to be repeated so the conversation is not a blame game. I am not in the business of blaming the victim here. The real conversation is how do we stop this vicious deadly cycle?
J: You just condemned Israel for killing civilians but you won’t condemn Hamas for killing civilians
Z: How many times you have interviewed Israel officials Lewis? Hundreds of times. How many times Israel have committed war crimes, right live on your own cameras? Do you start by asking them to condemn themselves? Have you? You don’t. I’ll answer that question, you don’t. You know why I refuse to answer this question? Because I refuse the premise of it. Because at the very heart of it, is misrepresentation of the whole thing. Because it is the Palestinians that are always expected to condemn themselves. I mean come on. This is a political conflict. We have been denied our rights for a long time. So this is the wrong starting point. The right starting point is to focus on the root causes, is to try and get out of this extreme dark tunnel. As opposed to this business by the BBC and the mainstream media for 75 years. You bring us here whenever there are Israelis who are killed. Did you bring me here when many Palestinians in the west bank more than 200 over the last few months? Do you invite me when there is such Israeli provocation in Jerusalem and elsewhere? Because Israel… what Israelis have seen, which we started by saying tragic, the last 48 hours the Palestinians saw every day for the last 50 years. You know the situation in Gaza, you have just described it. This is the biggest open-air prison those people, two million, have been taken hostage by Israel for the last 16 years. So, I am saying this, just to say louis perhaps this is about time we abandon this rhetoric very dangerous this framework and we start giving people the real ugly truth sometimes.
J: What is the solution in your eyes?
Z: International law. That’s it.
J: What does that mean?
Z: The equal application of international resolutions and law and legitimacy. As you did in Ukraine would you bring the Ukrainian ambassador here and start asking him to condemn some of his fighters. We need to fully and equally apply the rules that were created by the league of nations after the horrors of the second world war. We need to make sure that Israel is not the exception, it has been for the last 75 years. We need to make sure that nobody is above the law. Britain is renowned for the rule of law. I think that is the solution. Israel is an occupying force it is responsible to provide protection for the people under its occupation and should they commit crimes and crimes against humanity in the coming hours, and weeks, it must be held accountable by the international community and the international judicial system.
The Jews have suffered a lot
For centuries, Jews have suffered a lot and remained stateless.
The Catholic Inquisition drove the Jews out of Andalusia, where they lived side by side with Muslims, with massacres and tortures. Goliath at that time was Pope Paul III, who started the Catholic Inquisition.
In the Second World War, Goliath was the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany. In the Holocaust, the largest genocide in history, 6 million defenseless people in Germany and in German-occupied Central and Eastern Europe were mass murdered, not because they collaborated with the enemy or rebelled, but simply because they were Jews.
In 1967, Goliath was the Arab Coalition, the alliance of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, united to cut off and then destroy the water supply to Israel, established in 1948. There, David smashed the Arab coalition and took what is known today as the “occupied Palestinian territories”.
Today, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says he will cut off water and electricity to Gaza, where 2.3 million people have been living under blockade for years, because of Hamas attacks.
From David to Goliath
It is painful to see the people who have suffered so much now act like a Goliath to destroy the Palestinians. The same goes for the US-led West’s unconditional support for Israel, and the Arab autocracies’ material interests in dealing with Israel, while not even thinking of protecting the rights of Palestinians in the meantime.
The slaughter of civilians by the Hamas organization, which Israel once underhandedly supported to divide the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in its Iranian-backed offensive today, brought to the fore in a BBC interview the Palestinian ambassador’s remarks about the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians by Israel so far.
Humanity does not learn from history and while some try to prevent the spread of war by talking to both Israel and the Palestinians, others continue to send the message to Israel: “Hit. We are behind you”. It is the civilian population of all nations who always suffer.
It is soothing that Turkey is in the former group this time as it was in Russia’s war with Ukraine – despite mistakes made at the time.
