Little exposure has been given to the Yellow Line and the Orange Line in Gaza. Given the genocide, Israel’s military occupation in Gaza should have generated equal scrutiny at the very least. However, Israel’s current presence in Gaza has followed the same pattern of oblivion as in the occupied West Bank. Colonialism in Palestine has become the norm, as is military occupation.
A recent brief report by the UN follows the same normalisation trajectory.
Last week, the UN warned that ongoing Israeli expansion is “shrinking the areas available to civilians”. However, the statement does not encompass the entire story. Decades before the genocide, Palestinians faced the same repercussions of forced displacement. The current Israeli military occupation of Gaza to facilitate the colonisation of Gaza is a continuation of earlier colonial expansion.
And while expansion is definitely limiting land access and ownership for Palestinians, it is Israel that has ordered further expansion to take place.
Therefore, the UN could have been clearer in its writing by detailing that Israel as a colonial entity is implementing further expansion measures that will drive Palestinians out of Gaza. The majority of UN reports are intent on separating Israel from colonial expansion, thus creating separate narratives for each violation Israel commits. Since the UN focuses on repercussions more than it does on the perpetrator, the UN’s strategy used in reporting creates more impunity for Israel.
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The immediate focus upon reading the report is humanitarian operations. Expansion, the UN stated, is “limiting access for aid workers and reducing the space available for civilians already displaced by the conflict.” However, if the UN looked at its other reports, it would find multitudes of examples in which similar statements were made. The question, therefore, is why does the UN persist in documenting each Israeli aggression with little to no context? More importantly, why does the UN not reference Israeli colonialism, clearly, as the culprit?
References to international law violations are continuously made without the defining colonial context. Hence forced displacement is just a humanitarian concern, just as aid restrictions are also filed under humanitarian concerns. Palestinians killed within the murky areas designated by Israel as buffer zones are also discussed through a humanitarian lens.
Israel, however, is eliminating Palestinians strategically though different means.
Aid restrictions are meant to deprive Palestinians further of basic needs; it is not just a question of logistics as the UN portrays. Forced displacement and Israel’s expansion in Gaza are part of Israel’s overt plan to empty the enclave of Palestinians.
Killing Palestinians is an instant elimination that contributes to the kill toll.
The various means Israel has employed throughout the decades have been narrated to the rest of the world in an alienated manner. The UN, in particular, has been at the helm of spreading this form of narrative. The more the humanitarian aspect is magnified, the less Palestinian rights are linked to politics. As a result, Israel colonial politics are openly shielded by the UN’s humanitarian paradigm. The UN reaps benefits for the coloniser while the colonised struggles, despite provisions for liberation under international law.
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