Gaza Quotes

“So the ultimate question is, Do Palestinians have the right to symbolically resist slow death punctuated by periodic massacres, or is it incumbent upon them to lie down and die?”
― Norman G. Finkelstein, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom

“When a place becomes unlivable, people move,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has observed. “This is the case for environmental disasters such as droughts, or for conflicts, such as in Syria. Yet this last resort is denied to the people in Gaza. They cannot move beyond their 365 square kilometers territory. They cannot escape, neither the devastating poverty nor the fear of another conflict. Its highly educated youth . . . do not have the option to travel, to seek education outside Gaza, or to find work, anywhere else beyond the perimeter fence and the two tightly-controlled border-checkpoints in the north and south of the Gaza Strip.”
― Norman G. Finkelstein, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom

“The essence of an occupation under international law is that it is a temporary situation. An occupation that does not and cannot end is de facto an irreversible annexation. Inasmuch as the acquisition of territory by war is illegal under international law, an occupation that morphs into an irreversible annexation must also be illegal. In light of the International Court of Justice’s jurisprudence in the Namibia case, on the one hand, and Israel’s persistent refusal to negotiate an end to the occupation on the basis of international law, on the other, it is submitted that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, has become illegal under international law. As such, Israel has forfeited its rights as an occupying power. The one and only “right” still accruing to it is to execute a full withdrawal from the Palestinian territories that it illegally occupies.”
― Norman G. Finkelstein, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom

“Here’s how weapons experts described the impact of the GBU-31, which Israel used in “several” of the air strikes investigated by the Report: The explosion creates a shock wave exerting thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch [psi]. By comparison, a shock wave of 12 psi will knock a person down; and the injury threshold is 15 pounds psi. The pressure from the explosion of a device such as the Mark-84 JDAM82 can rupture lungs, burst sinus cavities and tear off limbs hundreds of feet from the blast site, according to trauma physicians. When it hits, the JDAM generates an 8,500-degree fireball, gouges a 20-foot crater as it displaces 10,000 pounds of dirt and rock and generates enough wind to knock down walls blocks away and hurl metal fragments a mile or more. There is a very great concussive effect. Damage to any human beings in the vicinity would be pretty nasty.83”
― Norman G. Finkelstein, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom

“If the noose was tightened around Hamas alongside the people of Gaza, it was because they did as told: they participated in democratic elections.”
― Norman G. Finkelstein, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom

“If this statement of intent weren’t incriminating enough, the Panel laid out yet more evidence of the sinister and nefarious plot: “The number of journalists embarked on the ships gives further power to the conclusion that the flotilla’s primary purpose was to generate publicity.”75 It must be a first, and surely marks a nadir, in the annals of the United Nations that a report bearing its imprimatur vilified the victims of a murderous assault because they sought to cast light on an ongoing crime against humanity.76”
― Norman G. Finkelstein, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom

“He was not, however, the only one who came under attack. The UN Human Rights Council appointed eminent international jurist Christian Tomuschat as chair of a follow-up committee mandated to determine whether Israel and Hamas were conscientiously investigating the Report’s allegations. Deciding that Tomuschat was insufficiently pliant, Israel’s lobby hounded and defamed him until he had no choice but to step down.38”
― Norman G. Finkelstein, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom