with the outbreak of the war between Hamas and Israel and its continuation, the world is stunned by the deep sense of responsibility of the Europeans towards Israel. A sense of responsibility and sympathy towards the victims of crimes is a good human feeling and should be encouraged and appreciated. This feeling, however, cannot be limited to one issue alone. For this reason, I will list additional items that are approximately of equal importance and quantity, so that we can assess the extent to which this sense of responsibility has been shown towards them and how they have been associated with them.
- Colonialism in Africa began in the 15th century, but between 1881 and 1914 it was as heinous as ever. Because in the Berlin Conference of February 25, 1885, which was convened at the invitation of Bismarck, the countries of Africa were divided and occupied among 13 European countries and were called colonial areas. Africa’s natural resources were plundered. It was only in 2010, after 125 years of looting, genocide, discrimination, unbridled violence, murder and humiliation, that this policy and its practical consequences against the people of Africa were called “crimes against humanity” and the possibility of reparations was raised, albeit under the guise of neo-colonial methods or modern colonial.
- The slave trade was carried out by European commercial capitals (Portugal, Britain, Spain, France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark) from Africa to the Americas. About 12 million free Africans were kidnapped and sold as commodities and made long journeys on ships carrying animals and livestock. Six million of them died during the voyage due to various reasons such as disease, hunger, thirst, and wars between ships, but in fact they were killed and their bodies were thrown into the sea to be consumed by sea creatures, leaving no trace of them. No Picture of them that can be hung on Wall and not a list of their names. This number was close to 25% of the population of the areas where they lived. Do the people of Europe and the United States feel responsible for these 12 and 6 million? Have memorials been built for them in the mentioned countries? Do radio and television talk about them all the time? Do school students get enough information about this, do presidents speak to them at different ceremonies and remind them of their responsibility and that of future generations? Does the phrase “we don’t forgive, we don’t forget” apply to them as well?
• Coup against Patrice Lumumba, 35, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after independence, who did not want to operate under the influence of the colonial powers. His government lasted only ten weeks, from June 24, 1960, to September 5, 1960, as the internal agents of Belgian colonialism stole him and his two loyal deputies, killing him and his two loyal deputies after horrific torture, dismembering them and throwing them in acid, and burning the rest until they were completely wiped out. The Belgian government apologized for it in 2002!! As we see it, the event did not take place in the Middle Ages, but in the twentieth century. Is there a statue of him in Belgium or another formerly colonialist country when the statue of the slave trader was recently pulled down by the protesting people (Britain)?
• The genocide of the two Tribes “Nama and Herero” in Namibia by the German colonial army in 1904, also in the 20th century. The reason for the massacre was their struggle and war against occupation and colonialism. They were driven into the desert and besieged, where a large number died of thirst and hunger, and the rest were taken to camps, where they died under harsh conditions.
Overall were the majority of these two tribes, were massacred about 100,000. In 2015, after 110 years, Germany agreed to negotiate with the government to accept genocide and apologized, and then with one Billion dollar the issue was officially ended. No memorial was built. It was not raised as an urgent issue in schools, nor was it addressed once a year on radio and television. Why? Are the human values of the people of Africa less than others? Weren’t they worth talking about because they were of colour? Were they not the chosen tribes?
• Apartheid in South Africa by white immigrants.
First, the Nederland arrived with the Dutch East India Company, which formed a white but dominant minority. After the bankruptcy of the Dutch company, it was replaced by Britain. In1806 Slavery was abolished in England, but due to the ongoing struggles in the colonies, it was not abolished there until 27 years later. More than 80% of the population, who were black, did not have the right to vote, even if they did, it would not help them, because this right only means that you are free every few years vote for people or parties that you do not know them and who do not know you and your problems and do not even want to know them, because they support the interests of the ruling class not yours.
You are only a vote for them, nothing more. You are needed to legitimize them, that’s why you will be loved by them during the elections. The white government, which came to power in 1948, drafted and passed segregation laws. With this Laws wealth went to the 7.8% white minority, and labour and exploitation to blacks, people of colour, and Indians. And it also intensified the class divide and at the same time the struggle for emancipation. Aside from the issue of slavery, a significant factor for the colonial countries was the existence of rich diamond, gold, mines, and resources of uranium, oil, and cotton, which replaced slavery.
In 1994, blacks gained the right to vote, while they needed a redistribution of wealth, blessings and chances, and cutting off the hands of the capitalists from the national wealth to make it possible for everyone to live in prosperity. But by forgiving the criminals and their agents and to imprison the fighters who fought against the apartheid government as Terrorist, the poverty of the working masses increased, and only black capitalists and their intellectuals were allowed to join the circle of power. This shows that capitalism is not dependent on colour and race, but rather on relations in which a majority, regardless of colour and race, is exploited and a minority is fattened.
• Colonialism in India: 1800-1947 first by the East India Company which was dissolved by the 1857 rebellion and then the occupation of Indian territory by the Raj. In World War II, Britain forcibly sent 2 million Indians to war and killed many more. Discrimination, humiliation, and plundering of resources were prevalent and caused the struggle for to release from colonialism to continue until independence in 1950. But the participation of India in the countries of commonwealth shows that independence was not the end of colonialism, but it became a different form of it.
Colonialism did not only include the plundering of resources, but also created discord and enmity between the different ethnic groups living in the region with the policy of divide and rule. The impact of this policy can be seen in the Indian subcontinent and its transformation into Kashmir, India, and Pakistan and their continuous conflicts. The plundering of India’s resources was one of the important factors that provided for the growth of capitalism in England.
Is there a sense of responsibility among Europeans for this plunder, humiliation, discrimination, and occupation of the land? To date, British officials have refrained from apologizing. The former queen called it “unfortunate and tragic” but said it was impossible to rewrite history. Of course, if history is written by the rulers, and Prime Minister Cameron called what happened “shameful”, he did not apologize.
• Iran and British colonialism: Iran was never officially converted into a colony, but colonial policies operated in it. Britain signed a treaty with Iran, according to which no European country was allowed to pass through Iran to go to India. In 1810, by concluding commercial agreements, they obtained many concessions that were to the detriment of Iran. The Reuter concession in 1872 laid the railway, extracting all the mines including oil, coal, lead, etc. in it.
In 1901, Britain signed the contract for the extraction of Iranian oil and established its dominance over it, according to which only 16% of the oil profits were given to Iran and the remaining 84% was the share of Britain, which continued until the passage of the Oil Nationalization Law on March 20, 1931, but the sale of oil was stopped because European countries in support of Britain boycotted the purchase of Iranian oil, which lasted for four years. Similarly, in World War II, although Iran declared neutrality in the war on September 1, 1939, Iran was invaded and occupied and attacked by the Allied forces by air, land and sea from the north, east, south and west. The agricultural products and supplies of the Iranian people were seized by the occupying forces, and famine occurred. People were suffering from food shortages, and many died of hunger and disease. The press was censored by the occupiers and the people were harassed.
In the First World War, due to the occupation of Iran, 25% of the Iranian population died of hunger and typhus caused by the soldiers of the occupying forces. At the end of the war, Iran was neither compensated nor the occupation was condemned, just like after World War II. This suffering and mortality did not enter into the sense of responsibility of the Europeans at all. Was it taught to students in history books?
•The Vietnam War is so well known first by France and then by the United States that it is needless to say, but I have not seen a memorial being taken for its victims. I have not heard of people’s sense of responsibility. Are French, American, and European students fully informed about it to feel responsible.
• The War between NATO or a combination of the United States and the European Union with Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, which turned the above three countries into ruins. It killed hundreds of thousands of people. It led to the growth of armed groups and radical Islamism in the region.
In the end, the defeated NATO left the region and placed the enormous burden of the war on the shoulders of the workers of their countries. While millions of people were always demonstrating in the streets against the war. Do the people have the right to make decisions or to oppose a decision, or is it only the right of the government and the parliament?
This disenfranchisement of the people is the true expression of bourgeois democracy. Did they properly inform the masses of the people about the events? Is there a sense of responsibility for all this destruction, humiliation, and killing, or are the people of the Middle East not worthy of a sense of responsibility and accountability?
• After all, it is the behaviour of European emigrants in entering lands that were unknown to them and thought they had discovered, while those people had a rich history. They took over native land, Indigenous people were massacred in the land that was later called United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
They drove the rest of native people to a corner of their land and isolated them. They destroyed them with drugs and alcohol, separated their children and placed them in religious missions in order to destroy their language and culture and receive a Christian education. Abuse, rape, and pressure were part of this training.
I will summarize the matter by looking at the Middle East and the issue of the establishment of Israel, while there are many other things to say that will be limited to this brief. I have nothing to do with the history of the existence or establishment of the state of Israel or Palestine from a historical point of view. I will only show the sense of human responsibility in Europe after the Second World War. It should be noted that before World War II, there were no borders in the Arab Middle East, and people of different religions lived, interacted, and traded with each other in this area.
After World War II, England ended the colonialism of Palestine, on14 May 1948, and on this same day, Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the State of Israel. At the end of the 19th century, the immigration of European Jews to Palestine began. The percentage of the Jewish population increased from 5% in 1882 to 30% in 1945 and 33% in 1948. During the war, the United States supported the Zionist organizations and the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The question of Palestine was discussed at the United Nations for two weeks until May 15, 1947. Of the eleven people who were responsible for making decisions, 7 voted for the division of Palestine into two states, Jews and Palestine, and the remaining 4 voted for the establishment of an Arab-Jewish state and state. As a result, the United Nations, while ending the British Mandate, voted to divide Palestine into two Arab and Jewish states and a free Jerusalem with Resolution181.
The six Arab member states of the United Nations opposed this decision, calling the partition of Palestine a declaration of war, and determined to form the “Arab Liberation Army” and advanced in British Palestine from various directions. In March 1948, Israel announced Operation Dalit to protect the safety of the Jews, and on April 9 it carried out a massacre in the Arab village of Deir Yasin, which left 250 men, women and children dead.
Such operations were carried out many times, for example, on October 25, 1956, a sudden curfew and the order to shoot those who did not comply with it were announced. The incident in the Arab village of “Kafir Qasim” near the Jordanian border, killed 48 people who had no knowledge of the incident.
The first war between the Arabs and Israel ended in Israel’s favour in January 1949 with financial aid and the delivery of necessary weapons by the United States. By October 1948, according to the United Nations, 650,000 Palestinians had been expelled from their land, homes and lives, and after the ceasefire, only a small number were allowed to return to their homes and formed a group of Palestinian refugees in the camps. And now, according to the Palestinian central bureau of statistics, more than 6 million Palestinian refugees are living in 58 camps in Arab countries, hoping for the day when they will return to their homeland. In addition, 761,000 people live in other countries.
Second Arab-Israeli War (Six-Day War of July 5-10, 1967): The armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan took part in this war, as well as Iraq and Lebanon. Israel had the full support of the United States and Europe. Issues other than the Palestinian issue had a significant impact on the war, including the water crisis in Israel, the Suez Canal issue, the closure of the entry of Iranian oil to the port of Eilat in southern Israel through the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba, and the ownership of the Golan Heights and the Sinai Desert.
During this war, Israel, with the help of its spies in Egypt before the active conflict, was able to bomb and destroy more than 33 Egyptian warplanes, and subsequently sent troops to occupy the Sinai Peninsula, and by the end of these six days, it had succeeded in capturing the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
Battle of Karama: Karama was the headquarters of the Al-Fatah Organization and its leadership. On March 21, 1968, the Israeli army entered Jordanian territory from the ground and weather to crush the camp and the headquarters of Al-Fatah in Karama. In this war, which lasted for two days, during which the Palestinian forces and the Jordanian army fought together against Israel and forced Israel to retreat, all the houses of the Palestinian refugees were razed to the ground by the Israeli army. After this incident, the Palestinians were disarmed by the Jordanian government. The pressure on the refugees was not only exerted by Israel, but also by the Arab countries.
The Arab states, in turn, pressured, suppressed, or expelled them, as an example of Black September is.
Black September: The civil war between Fatah and the Lebanese army, during which the Jordanian government declared martial law and ordered the expulsion of all Fatah members in Jordan, which lasted only two days and ended in a ceasefire and Arafat’s agreement to expulsion, left between 3000 and 3400 dead, and Palestinian refugees from Fatah were forcibly expelled to Syria and residing in Syrian camps. But the leadership of Al-Fatah went to Lebanon.
This was the appearance of the matter and its human side, but does the support of the United States and other countries for Israel really stem from their love for the people who were victims of the racist and anti-Semitic policies of Nazi Germany? Does ignoring the project of building an atomic bomb and Israel’s lack of accountability and participation in the Atomic Energy Organization come from this love? Does turning a blind eye to the settlements and repeated occupations, billions of dollars in annual military financial aid, and the current 14 billion for Israel in exchange for 100 million for humanitarian aid to Palestine come from this divine love?
The issue of oil and gas (huge oil conglomerates), the issue of the strategic waterway (the Persian Gulf, the Suez Canal), the issue of natural resources, the issue of a state of no war and no peace and the sale of arms (the boom of the military and arms industries), the issue of oil dollars and their return to their origin, the joint investment of American capitalists in Israel’s military, aerospace and technology industries, Israel’s role in the balance of power in the Middle East during the Cold War, cooperation Israel is one of the most important with the colonial countries in Africa. Aside from the United States, German financial and military aid And European countries are also impressive to Israel. Does Germany give submarines to any other country in order to feel responsible for the crime? Does the submarine play a role in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians? All these donations come not from the love of supporting the victims, which of course only a few of them remain, but from the benefits of their own capital, the sale of weapons and equipment, even though Israel is their illegitimate child and does whatever it wants, even if it is to the detriment of these kinder nannies than the mother.
For these reasons, the burden of responsibility of the masses of the European people and the future generations is constantly increasing, due to ignorance, subjugation to the false propaganda of the official media, and the fear of seeing the truth and expressing it in this injustice, occupation of the land and displacement, in the endless destruction and killing of the Palestinians, not the governments and capitalists who act knowingly. Farideh Sabeti, July 2024