Guest Post: Response to Max Harris

A guest post by Lucy Rogers:

On 8 November 2024 Max Harris wrote an op ed for The Dominion Post on the Israel – Lebanon conflict. Harris’ article was profoundly misleading in numerous respects and I immediately wrote a response which was submitted to the editor of the Post on 9 November. To that email I have received no reply. This concerns me as The Dominion Post is not only publishing very one-sided coverage of the conflict but intentionally not publishing responses to that material or alternate points of view.

My response is below. I invite the reader to judge for yourselves whether in the interests of balance it ought to have been published. Harris’ article by the way is here: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360476520/glimpse-life-lebanon-and-what-more-nz-should-do

The Israel – Lebanon conflict is far more complex than Max Harris acknowledges

By Lucy Rogers

In Max Harris’ recent opinion item A glimpse of life in Lebanon, and what more NZ should do a number of criticisms were made of Israel. While I am also critical of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, to my mind his article omits some important facts and necessitates a response. 

Harris says: “In September Israel launched a series of heavy air attacks on Lebanon, following almost a year of sustained and widespread bombardments of Gaza. Then, on 1 October, Israel initiated a ground invasion of Lebanon.” He concedes that this was in response to “rockets fired into Israel” by Hezbollah. However, the only target he identifies is the Shebaa Farms, stating that it was “land held by Israel under military occupation that Israel annexed in 1981, but considered part of South Lebanon by Lebanon.”

One might be forgiven on Harris’ account in mistaking Hezbollah for a legitimate organisation which abides by humanitarian law and the rules of war, especially given Harris’ focus on Israel’s violations of the same. This is reinforced by Harris’ reference to Hezbollah’s “social services” in Lebanon (are suicide bombings a social service?) and representation in Lebanon’s Parliament. In fact 18 countries recognise Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation including inter alia the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. 

Nowhere does Harris acknowledge that over 8000 rockets were fired into Israel by Hezbollah daily over the course of the past year at civilian targets, which has forced 80,000 civilians to evacuate their homes in northern Israel, including Arabs. Nor does he acknowledge that victims of Hezbollah’s missile attacks have included Druze Arab children in the Golan Heights.

Nor does he explain that Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy organisation, or that Iran funded and co-ordinated the pogrom of Israeli civilians on October 7. Rather, he says that Hezbollah said that it was acting in solidarity with the people of Palestine in response to Israeli bombardments of Gaza. This is false: Hezbollah started firing missiles at Israel on October 8, well prior to Israeli bombardment of Gaza. It acted in concert with Hamas at Iran’s behest.

I also take issue with Harris stating as fact that over 43,000 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza and that over half of these are women and children. He does not provide the caveat that his source is Hamas, which is not a reliable source given that it is a terrorist organisation responsible for the genocide of Israeli civilians on October 7 2023. 

I do not purport to know precisely what is happening in Gaza. Sources I trust provide contradictory accounts. However, one item of data is the report of former NATO general Sir John McColl, who observed the operations of the Israeli military in Gaza firsthand. Although he arrived a sceptic, he concluded that Israel is doing “all it can” to protect civilians in Gaza and that the IDF’s rules of engagement in Gaza “are at least as rigorous as those of the British Army.” 

The most troubling aspect of Harris’ article is that it minimises Hamas’ genocide of Israelis on October 7. Muslim physician Qanta Ahmed wrote an eyewitness account of the aftermath of that horrific day: over 1200 Israelis a majority of whom were civilians were murdered. Bodies were ripped apart. Children were killed in front of their parents. Entire families were burned alive. Hamas engaged in gang rape of civilians. Men, women and children were sodomised. People were tortured. Civilians were gunned down at a music festival and grenades were thrown into a bomb shelter.

250 hostages were taken into Gaza causing indescribable agony for their families. Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s body and those of several other hostages were recovered from a tunnel with no light, no air vents and no toilets which was not high enough to stand up in. Its only entrance was located in the floor of a children’s bedroom with Mickey Mouse and Snow White wallpaper. The hostages were human skeletons who had been brutally murdered at close quarters.It is hypocritical for Harris to omit these details in an article which quotes a Lebanese friend of his who said that it was “insulting, hypocritical, and dehumanising” to describe the Israeli invasion of Lebanon as a humanitarian catastrophe on the grounds that it does not do justice to the severity of Israeli atrocities. I do not accuse Harris of antisemitism. But given the enormity of some people’s bias against Israel it is unsurprising that many people believe racism to be the to be the explanation.

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