Sheldon Richman on 51 Years of Israeli Occupation

This is the 51st anniversary of Israel’s 1967 war against Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinians. The so-called Six-Day War began the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and Sinai peninsula, which was eventually relinquished by Israel. It also continued the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that began around 1948.

After more than half a century, should we continue to call this an occupation? Israel has annexed the West Bank, Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem for those the state regards as Jews. The Gaza Strip is a prison camp into the which the guards do not go, preferring to gun down protesting prisoners and medics from a safe distance outside the fence while the authorities fully control the ingress and egress of people and goods like building materials, medicines, and other vital things. Every so often the Israeli Air Force bombs Gaza to smithereens.

Contrary to popular myth, it was not a defensive war on Israel’s part. The top Israeli political and military leaders knew there was no existential threat to the country. For one thing, the leading Arab power, Egypt under President Nasser, was embroiled in a civil war in Yemen, not an opportune time to start a war with Israel.

But rather than rehearse the facts, I list here some pertinent articles I published in the early 1990s.

“Israel’s 1967 Attack Was Aggression; Israel’s Current Occupation Is Illegal”

 “The Golan Heights: A History of Israeli Aggression”

“US Journalists Consistently Ignore Israeli State Terrorism”

“‘Who is a Jew’ Matters in Israel”

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute, senior fellow and chair of the trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society, and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies, former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest book isAmerica’s Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited.