The Iraqi Regime is Reproducing Israeli Practices Inherited from the Occupation

The Iraqi Regime is Reproducing Israeli Practices Inherited from the Occupation

by Haifa Zangana on 04-07-2014

BRussells Tribunal

“The New Iraq” regime established by the occupier, with its sectarianism and corruption, proved that it’s totally unable to free itself from the yoke of its master, rather; it opened up the gates wide for a second and a third occupier, to save the best guarantee, eventually, for the Israeli security through the friability of Iraq.

If you were allowed to take a tour in the Palestinian cities, you would see by yourself, and live in the midst of the racist practices of the Zionist regime, the marginalization of the other, even if the other was the rightful owners of the land.

The practices of the Zionist regime manifest themselves in many forms; they start with describing the Arab, whatever their religion is, as terrorists, ending with arresting them and torturing them, then racially isolating them in throttling cantons, and unlimited checkpoints, which aim to force them to migrate, and abandon their land and country. All of this happen under the slogan “Israel is a democratic, peace-loving country”.

This image, in many respects, is similar to the situation of “the New Iraq” and the practices there. The Israeli practices have been transferred throughout the nine years of the occupation, the training of the army and the Special Forces, and guarding the institutions, until they became the prevailing practices after the partial withdrawal in late 2011.

Before the voices of condemnation and accusation raise, I will explain some of the similarities I have been through during my presence, finally, in a number of Palestinian cities, like: Nablus, Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem and Ramallah, first; to participate in the Celebration of the Palestinian Literature in its seventh year, and second; through teaching cultural journalism in Al-Sakakini Centre in Ramallah, working with 15 young Palestinian journalists who work for different media audio, written and visual institutions. The journalists face many difficulties to reach the area because of the checkpoints, the difficulty of movement and getting an access permit. A 20 minutes- journey between a city and another turns into a journey of suffering that last for hours, one is forced to think to stay at home instead of going out. The Iraqi citizen is living in this situation almost every single day, the number of the checkpoints in the cities reach to hundreds, in addition to the concrete barriers separating the cities, which are similar to the Israeli West Bank Barrier.

The policy of Israel is based on racism, emptying the cities from their inhabitants, and drawing the map of Palestine according to it. It uses all means including the campaigns of raid, search and forced arrest. The Israeli administration is still inventing a way after another to legalize its actions with a legal coverage, changing the laws quickly to go along with what it wants to achieve against the Palestinian people. An administrative arrest means that the detainee doesn’t know what is the accusation, or the accusation period, which might extend to years. This is the very same policy practiced by the Iraqi regime, through raiding the houses, and the arbitrary arrests without an arrest warrant, or charge, or according to Terrorism-Article 4, and the secret informant, the penalty is execution.

  If we knew that there are more than 40 charges which are punished by execution, we would realize the meaning of getting arrested by the security and police systems of the “New Democratic Iraq”. There are more than 30.000 prisoners in Iraq, including 4500 women who were sexually and physically abused and raped in many cases, as to the reports of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Geneva International Centre for Justice.

If the Anglo-American occupation leans - in attracting its Iraqi followers- on the two crutches of ethnicity and sectarianism, the successive sectarian governments of occupation had excelled in exploiting the enormous wealth of the country to develop a mechanism of corruption and its consolidation. This fatal mixture; in addition to the policy of re-drawing the Iraqi map throughout the forced sectarian displacement and sieges of the cities; proved its activity with the passage of time, to preserve the authority with the very same faces that opened up the gates of Iraq to the invasion and occupation, like Al-Jafari, Al-Hakim, Al-Maliki, Allawi, Al-Samarraie, Al-Chalabi, Al-Barazani and Talabani.

Politically, the Palestinian authority works nominally through the Palestinian-Israeli security coordination, because the real authority is in the hand of Israel, which carries out what it wants, the way it wants, as to its interests. Israel mostly uses the Palestinian authority as a shield of protection from the rage of the Palestinian people, or as a decorative façade to pass its policy.

The Iraqi regime is no different from that,it is tied from the neck by the Strategic Frame Agreement ,which is signed by Al-Maliki, the Secretary General of the sectarian Al-Dawa Party, with George Bush administration in 2008. To carry out this convention, four joint coordination committees were formed, each committee is specialized in aspects of the state politically, economically, security, military, commercially, communications, and education.

The supreme coordination committee, headed by Noori Al-Maliki from the Iraqi side, was formed to supervise the work of the committees. The American Minister of Foreign Affairs, Condoleezza Rice described the indefinite Agreement as “a living Agreement” that is symbolizing the long term US-Iraq friendship, and embodies the commitment of the United States to the future of democracy in Iraq, as well as its protection to the American national security.

It is noticeable that Noori Al-Maliki was the one who insists that there should be monthly meetings held regularly by the committees, focusing on the security and military issues, especially in terms of requests for supply of weapons and technology to fight "terrorism."Here, terrorism, as years of the ruling of Al-Dawa Party proved , according to the slogan “ reckoning”, and the continuous revenge campaigns, means eliminating anyone raising his/her voice in protest at the sectarian policy of the regime and its corruption.

Hence, the entreaty of Al-Maliki to the American administration to provide him with weapons, previously and now, is normal. It is not different from the preceded officials of the occupation governments who find nothing wrong in serving the master and being subservient to his orders.” But they are lions like their own people” as the late poet Maarouf Al-Rasafi said. Those who entered the country and rule, strengthened by the foreigner never reassure their people, and live in panic on himself/herself, and his/her position from the demonstrations, sit-ins and uprisings. The accusation of “terrorism” is ready as a fortified shield to protect the dictator and his occupier master.

There is no wonder that the American president Barack Obama declares that he sent 300 military consultant to Baghdad, after Al-Maliki regime signed an immunity agreement for the American Special Operations Forces, agreeing on using the reconnaissance aircrafts, the very same aircrafts Israel uses to target and eliminate the leaders of the Palestinian resistance, who are, like the Iraqis, accused of terrorism, in addition to the silence surrounding the bombing of the cities as a collective punishment, under the pretext of defending the inhabitants.

“The New Iraq” regime established by the occupier, with its sectarianism and corruption, proved that it’s totally unable to free itself from the yoke of its master, rather; it opened up the gates wide for a second and a third occupier, to save the best guarantee, eventually, for the Israeli security through the friability of Iraq.

Haifa Zangana, Iraqi novelist and artist, columnist for al-Quds newspaper. her comments on Iraq have been published in The Guardian, Red Pepper, al-Ahram Weekly and LA Times. Haifa is a co founder of Tadhamun ( Iraqi women solidarity) and a consultant at UN.Her recent books are Dreaming of Baghdad and The Torturer in the Mirror with Ramsey Clark and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer.  Member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal