Octopus Game Part IV – Hidden History of Palestine

The Octopus Game Part IV

Press TV (2024)

Film Review

https://www.presstv.ir/doc/Detail/2024/12/29/739924/Octopus-Game-US-military-Ukraine-Israel-American-foreign-policy-documentary-PressTV

This episode consists of three main threads. The first explores the continuity between the 1948 Zionist terrorist campaign against Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israel’s current genocidal war against Gaza. Unlike the 1948 campaign of Zionist genocide, the current war on Gaza is garnering global media attention. The second thread traces the rise of the Palestinian resistance and Hamas. The third explores the early aftermath of Israel’s declaration of war against Gaza on October 8, 2023.

In 1948, some orders were so atrocious (such as killing children by cracking their skulls) that various Haganah members refused to carry them out. Input from Palestinian refugees the same year led the UN to call for a criminal investigation against the founders of the first Israeli government. Despite persistent claims that Palestinians refugees left their villages voluntarily before the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) arrived to occupy them, the Ben Gurion government finally ordered an investigation into the civilian massacres. After nearly 80 years, Israel has yet to release the report.

The Palestinian Resistance

In 1964, the Palestinian diaspora established the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) under the leadership of Yasser Arafat. After years of negotiation with the Israeli government, in 1993 the PLO signed an agreement (the Oslo Accords) to establish a Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza and to negotiate its evolution into a fully independent Palestinian state. Many Palestinians rejected this agreement as it denied the majority of Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homeland (it’s illegal under international law for an occupying power to drive indigenous people from their homeland). As a result many many Palestinians shifted their support from the secular PLO to Islamic Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

1999 – at Israel’s request, Jordanian government expels the Hamas leadership, who moves their headquarters to Qatar.2000 – Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon leads IDF troops into the sacred Al Axa mosque in Jerusalem,* triggering the first Intifada (Palestinian uprising)2001 – Hamas builds and fires the first Kazan rockets into the occupied territories (Israel), forcing them to adopt a comprehensive missile defense system (the Iron Dome) with US supplied missiles.2003 – Arafat falls ill and Mahmood Abba assumes leadership of the Palestinian authority.2004 – after numerous assassination attempts, Israel finally succeeds in assassinating Arafat.**2004 – Israel built separation barriers around illegal (under international law) Israeli settlements in occupied Gaza and the West Bank. The International Court of Justice also declares these barriers illegal under international law, a move endorsed by nearly the entire UN General Assembly.2005 – Israel withdraws the IDF from Gaza and dismantles all Israeli settlements there, exercising de facto control over Gaza (with Egyptian cooperation) through periodic blockades of food, water and electricity entering Gaza.2006 – in January the Palestinian Authority orders the first free election for the Palestinian Authority Legislative Council (representing both the West Bank and Gaza). Hamas wins 74 out of 132 seats. Israel responds by assassinating eight Hamas commanders.2007 – Israel carries out 22-day bombing campaign against Gaza, employing illegal white phosphorus and depleted uranium and killing 1,300 civilians

Israel’s Current War on Gaza

October 8, 2023 – the US orders the aircraft carrier USS Gerald A Ford to the eastern Mediterranean

October 10, 2023 – Israel bombs Damascus and Aleppo (in Syria) and  the Islamic University of Gaza in the West Bank. Israel also blocks  humanitarian aid convoy attempting to enter Gaza at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

October 14 – the UN declares UN Refugee and Relief Assistance (UNRWA) shelters are no longer a safe zone for civilians as Israel is bombing them.

October 15 – Israel restores water and humanitarian food and medicine convoys via the Rafah crossing but makes food deliveries impossible by bombing them and the civilians they assist. The US government orders the USS Eisenhower to eastern Mediterranean.

*The October 7 Hamas attack on the Zionist musical festival was named for this event.

**Most likely with polonium. See The Assassination of Yassar Arafat