Akram Awad

Reports about the Queen’s conferral of knighthood on Israeli President Shimon President endanger the Royals’ reputation and add a new category eligible for the honorary title: war criminals.

It seems that the Zionist pro-Israeli blackmailing tactics against the Royals have done the trick – again. Latest news reports from Israel are confirming that the Israeli embassy’s desperate begging for a knighthood title to be honoured by Queen Elizabeth to the Israeli President Shimon Peres has finally been answered(1). Another report published on the Daily Express(2) earlier this month leaked information about the Queen’s rejection of the Israeli bidding for the honorary title. The report quoted a British Official stating, “It’s not going to happen. There is no knighthood.” It is, therefore, still too early to confirm the reliability of the Israeli reports, as they may simply be part of the dirty campaign itself.

I should not be exaggerating when I claim that Mr. Peres is one of those few whose contribution to the Zionist project in Palestine and the sufferings of the Palestinians and Arabs has never stopped ever since the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1947-1949. His record(3) includes his role in searching for talented officers to join the Haganah terrorist militias - Ben Gurion’s military gang and the predecessor of the Israeli army - which led the acts of terrorism, killing and forced expulsion against the Palestinians since 1947. Peres became a member of the Haganah’s high command in May 1947 where he was responsible for manpower and arms purchases and production. So to call Peres “Israel’s Dove of Peace” is not any different from calling the Devil an “Angel of Evil”.

The most distinguished war crime of the 1994’s Noble Peace Prize laureate was his direct responsibility as a Prime Minister for the shelling of the UN forces headquarters in the village of Qana in southern Lebanon in 1996. More than 800 Lebanese civilians sought refuge in the building to escape Israeli fire, yet the UN flag was not enough to stop the Israeli thirst for blood. 106 people were killed in the massacre and at least 110 were seriously injured. Despite the UN investigation conclusions(4) that the attack could never be referred to as a technical or procedural error, the International Community failed so far to prosecute Peres and bring him to trial as a war criminal. Instead, The UN General Assembly debated whether Israel should be charged for the repair of the attacked compound - and the vote almost failed -, as if it was the United Nations of Bricks!

The Israeli President is one of the strongest advocates for bringing the Iranian nuclear program to a halt at any cost even if military intervention is required. Since the first time I wrote about this issue two years ago(5) many things have changed but one has remained the same; The Israeli military nuclear program remains intact, and the man who prides himself for making that program possible is still allowed to blatantly criticise Iran’s nuclear program and threaten to destroy it, “The president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map,” Peres once stated(6). If it hadn’t been for Shimon Peres convincing the French in 1957 to help build the Israeli secret nuclear reactor, Dimona, the Israeli nuclear program could have never seen the light of day. Apart from few slips of the tongue, the Israelis still insist upon denying the existence of their nuclear program and their possession of hundreds of nuclear warheads. The world’s silence on Israel’s nuclear arsenal led the latter to safely conclude the following moral of the story: “We should be allowed to do whatever we want as long as we lie about it.”

I’ll go back to the word “exaggeration”. Questioning the dedication of Peres to the Zionist project in Palestine - all Palestine - does not stand as an option when we listen to the man’s statements echoing the racist evil nature of Zionism. Peres strongly criticised(7) the International Court of Justice after its ruling to de-legalise the construction of the Israeli apartheid wall/barrier in the West Bank. Nor was he ashamed of expressing his racist concerns about the “demographical danger” threatening Israel due to the fast growth of the Arab population compared to the Jewish population. “If a division of territory is not effected within a decade, the Arab minority will have become an Arab majority. Israel will no longer be a Jewish state - or (it will) stop being a democratic state,”(8) Peres once argued for the need of a Palestinian state to complete the unfinished job of cleansing the rest of the Palestinians from their land in 1948’s occupied Palestine. While the illegal settlements in the West Bank have been a major obstacle toward any peace agreement in Palestine, Peres was the first to fight for the implantation of the first Jewish settlement, Kedumim, in 1970s in the heart of the 1967 occupied West Bank as well as the set up of the security zone(9) which makes up more than 45 percent of the West Bank.

If the Israelis’ knighthood news reports prove themselves right next week, Buckingham Palace will score a point for trying to resist the blackmail but will also lose so much of its reputation. There should be someone in there - I hope - to spot that winning the title of the “Most Attractive Destination for War Criminals” isn’t really worth it!

(1) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037259.html

(2) http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/69249/Queen-to-snub-Israeli-knighthood-bid

(3) http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/Peres_biography.htm

(4) http://www.undemocracy.com/S-1996-337/page_6

(5) http://www.akramawad.com/search?q=israel+nuclear+arsenal

(6) http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1145961301962

(7) http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2944632,00.html

(8) http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2003/10/20084912575844881.html

(9) http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/22362

Akram Awad is a writer, activist and researcher. His blog is Bonsoir Akram containing one of the most complete video archives on Palestine.