How Militaristic Israel Invaded Gaza In 1956

Former U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Member Barack Obama claimed to be an "anti-war candidate" during his 2008 presidential campaign. But Democratic President-Elect Obama still hasn’t been very eager to condemn the recent invasion of Gaza by the war machine of his militaristic Israeli government political allies in 2009. Yet 2009 is not the only year in which the government of Israel ordered its troops to invade Gaza.

As the Palestine Book Project’s 1977 book, Our Roots Are Still Alive: The Story of the Palestinian People recalled:

“Over 750,000 Palestinians had been driven out of Palestine to create the state of Israel…King Farouk of Egypt took over the administration of the Gaza Strip…

“On May 5, 1951 General Bennike, head of the United Nations Treaty Supervision Organization, reported that Israeli troops had expelled 7,000 Arabs from el-Auja, a demilitarized zone near Egypt, and added the territory to Israel. Nothing was done…Israel’s only offer involving return of Palestinians was to accept 100,000 refugees from the Gaza Strip, if the Strip were added to the state of Israel.

“Palestinians rejected this solution and any other that did not promise the return of their land. In 1950, 25,000 refugees went on a hunger strike against UNRWA, stating they would rather starve than settle outside Palestine…

“…Merchants crossing Beersheeba from the Gaza Strip, their pack animals loaded with rice and sugar, found their centuries-old caravan routes blocked by Israeli troops…Soon many people had fathers and sons, mothers and daughters who had been killed on the Gaza caravan…

“…In 1952 an officers’ coup in Egypt overthrew the corrupt rule of King Farouk. Within two years, Gamal Abdel Nasser emerged as the dynamic nationalist leader of Egypt…

“In early February 1955, the Egyptian government tried and hanged three Israeli intelligence agents in Cairo for acts of terrorism. On February 28, Israeli troops attacked a camp in the Gaza Strip and killed 36 Egyptian soldiers. The United Nations condemned the raid, pointing out that there had been no Egyptian border crossing or other military act providing even a pretext for the raid…

“But Nasser would not be intimidated. On July 26, 1956, he nationalized the Suez Canal, a part of Egypt formerly controlled by Britain. Over 125,000 Egyptians had died building the canal for the British Empire…

“…In October 1956, under a secret agreement with Britain and France, Israel invaded…the Gaza Strip…

“…Israel continued to occupy the territory for five months before it reluctantly withdrew. When it left, UN troops were stationed in Gaza…

“In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation had been especially brutal. As the soldiers moved into Gaza, they found a list of fedayeen in an Egyptian administration center. Systematically, they rounded up and executed 250 young Palestinians. Eighty died in a mass execution in a schoolyard.

“Still, during the five long months of Israeli occupation, small groups of Palestinians risked their lives to harass the Israeli soldiers…The seeds of resistance that sprouted in Gaza took root among Palestinians in many Arab countries…”