Iowa City Gaza resolution misidentifies problem

Recently passed by the Iowa City Council: “The City of Iowa City recognizes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the genocide of Palestinian people, ethnic cleansing by Israeli armed forces, and illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and seeks to avoid economically supporting these through the City’s investments.”

The infamous Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels is quoted as remarking that, if “you repeat a lie often enough, it will become the truth.” In truth, Israel is losing the propaganda war. However, resolutions such as this one misidentify the problem entirely. How strange it seems to me that otherwise good people can no longer distinguish between truth and lies, between victims and the victimizers.

Allow me to refresh the records. After the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 (if you can stomach it, you can view the online documentary called “We will Dance Again”), Israel vowed retaliation against Hamas, the terror group responsible for this massacre, where over 1,200 Israelis, including babies and elderly people, were brutally murdered and around 250 taken hostage. The estimate is that perhaps 20 of these are still alive, held captive in the extensive network of underground tunnels in Gaza, the remainder having been murdered.

War is always a catastrophe for the civil population, but that is also Hamas’ “winning card.” You can experience this cynicism in an interview from Fatah (Palestinian Authority) Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub online, recorded last week. In celebrating the so-called achievements of the Oct. 7 massacre, Rajoub singled out the false accusations of "genocide and ethnic cleansing." These accusations are part of the Palestinian victimhood narrative — a narrative that has no basis in fact, as the population of Gaza has actually grown during the alleged "genocide."

The accusation of the IDF pursuing “ethnic cleansing” is particularly ludicrous. The definition of the term (Encyclopaedia Britannica, look it up) is “the attempt to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas through the deportation or forcible displacement of people belonging to particular ethnic groups.” That is not applicable to the situation in the Gaza Strip. The IDF targets Hamas terrorists; collateral damage is unfortunately inevitable in street-to-street warfare. The blame for the suffering of the Gazans is located squarely in the well-filled food bowls of Hamas.

I’ll offer another refresher, regarding the “occupation of Palestinian land.” In the course of history, many different empires ruled Gaza, however there was never a “Palestine.” Israel dismantled its Gazan settlements and withdrew completely and unilaterally in 2005. The terrorist organization Hamas won elections the same year and entrenched itself in the population, building a network of some 350-450 miles of reinforced underground tunnels and bunkers, many of which run underneath hospitals, schools and U.N. buildings. These provide no protection for the civilian population, so the population functions as “human shields.” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar wrote in a widely circulated letter that the Palestinian death toll would "infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honor.” He also referred to civilian deaths as "necessary sacrifices."

In my opinion, it’s not useful to pass meaningless resolutions that have no effect other than to reinforce virtue signaling. It’s a waste of time and won’t feed another Gazan child or free another Israeli hostage to glibly chant buzzwords such as “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing” and “occupation” without fully understanding the concepts themselves, nor having a historic or cultural background of the Levant. Lenin had a particularly cynical term for people such as these. I won’t repeat it here, but you can Google it. (Hint: it starts with “useful.”)

Of course, people want to feel that they are on the side of morality. Of course they identify with the underdog. It is also understandable that they imbibe sources that reinforce their information bias, even if it means turning repeated lies into supposed truths. If there was such thing as a “Goebbels Prize,” Hamas would surely be a good candidate to win it.

Rabbi Rebecca Kushner lives in Iowa City.