The gross disparity between the military resources available to Israel and the Palestinian factions during Operation Cast Lead (OCL) could make a comparison between their two “arsenals” seem absurd. Yet this and the following document devoted to Palestinian weaponry not only highlight the imbalance but help the reader better appreciate the dynamics at play in the broader conflict.
The data below were compiled by IPS Senior Research Associate Michele K. Esposito based on a survey of available sources. Sources for each day are listed in the Chronology section in this issue of JPS and in the notes below, which explain in detail how the figures were derived.
The Nakba—a mini-holocaust for the Palestinians—is a key point in the history of Palestine and Israel: In 1948, a country and its people disappeared from international maps and dictionaries. The Nakba resulted in the destruction of much of Palestinian society, and much of the Arab and Islamic landscape was obliterated by the Israeli state—a state created by a an settler-colonial community that immigrated into Palestine in the period between 1882 and 1948. About 90 percent of the Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from the territory occupied by Israel in 1948–49—many by psychological warfare, a large number at gunpoint. After 1948, the historic Arabic names of geographical sites were replaced by newly coined Hebrew names, some of which resembled biblical names.
Occupied lands for Israel without incorporating the people on the land—the Palestinians. This set in motion a set of practices—expropriation of land, expansion of settlements (all of them illegal), and erection of walls to prevent Palestinians from reaching their lands—that collectively constitute occupation. Palestinians in the territories thus have become outsiders who are denied access to the “inside.” Walls and Israeli roads should be understood “as an effect rather than a cause” (p. 30); the real problem is the occupation itself, which demands such practices. This has led to the division of the West Bank into “three or four large pieces, plus East Jerusalem” (p. 57). These divisions, of both Palestinians and their lands, have been codified by the Oslo negotiations, which also produced a compliant Palestinian leadership incapable of advancing the national rights of Palestinians.
This section aims to give readers a glimpse of how the Arab world views current events that affect Palestinians and the Arab-Israeli conflict by presenting a selection of cartoons from al-Hayat, the most widely distributed mainstream daily in the Arab world. JPS is grateful to al-Hayat for permission to reprint its material.