8 Reasons Why Calling Shimon Peres a “Peacemaker” is a Lie
BY: Arab America Staff
Shimon Peres died on Tuesday at the age of 93 after suffering from a stroke on September 13. The former Israeli prime minister and president was remembered in the U.S. as a peacemaker and lovable leader of Israel.
Arabs across the globe are remembering Peres in a different light, though. Peres, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his participation in the Oslo Accords, is responsible for violence, displacement, oppression, and other crimes against humanity. The late prime minister was born in Belarus, but moved to Palestine in the 1930s. Since then, he has been a symbol of colonization.
For Palestinians and their neighbors in Lebanon and Egypt, Peres was always someone to fear. During his terms in office, Peres built programs for the Israeli nuclear weapons, the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the Gaza blockade. The former Israeli president may have once shaken hands with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but this one moment of peace does not negate his lifetime of colonizing and dehumanizing Arabs.
Below is a list of events that better represent Shimon Peres’ legacy. Major American media outlets will not remember the former prime minister in this light, but those who are buried under Peres’ inhumane policies cannot be forgotten.
1. Member of the Haganah
The Haganah was a Jewish militia that forcibly removed Palestinians from their homes, often by burning them and murdering villagers, during the late 1940s.
2. Architect of Israel’s Nuclear Weapons Program
From 1953-1965, Peres served in Israel’s defense ministry when they began compiling nuclear weapons. In 1975, Peres offered to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa’s apartheid regime in a secret meeting.
3. Planner of the Suez Crisis
During his tenure in the ministry of defense, Peres helped the French and British capture the Suez Canal from Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser. Peres led Israel’s invasion of Egypt in 1956 in order to give control of the Suez over to the West, but the plan failed, and the Western countries ended up stopping the all-out aggression Israel waged against Egypt.
4. Thief of Palestinian Land
Before 1967, Israel was confiscating Palestinian land and labeling them as “closed military zones.” Peres is also famous for claiming that before Israel existed, “there was nothing there,” yet was a member of the militia that rid his new country of the native people living there beforehand.
5. Supporter of the Early West Bank Settlement Program
Once the West Bank was conquered by Israel in the 1967 War, Peres enthusiastically helped begin the illegal settlement program during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In his later years, Peres would stop any sanctions of the settlements whenever he could. Peres is champion of the slogan: “Settlements everywhere.”
6. Prime Minister During the Qana Massacre
When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1996 under Peres’ orders, armed forced killed 154 civilians and injured another 351. Peres said the operation was necessary in order to stop Hezbollah, but the target – Qana – was a Palestinian refugee camp, not Hezbollah. Half of the victims in the Qana massacre were children. The attack took place 3 years after the Oslo Accords, discrediting his Nobel Peace Prize entirely. Peres remained unapologetic for this deadly attack that killed dozens of innocent people, saying, “I am at peace.”
7. Violator of the Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords were a negotiated peace between Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat, but the Israeli prime minister did nothing to hold up his end. The illegal settlement expansion and occupation continued only worsened after the agreement was made.
8. Global Ambassador for the Gaza Blockade
During his last ten years of life, Peres campaigned to keep Gaza subjected to collective punishment through a blockade and military operations. He called the 2009 invasion of Gaza “Israel’s finest hour” blamed Palestinians for the death of four little boys on the beach of Gaza by Israeli forces in 2014.
Shimon Peres may have done an excellent job of diluting his negative side effects to the West, but his real legacy – the one of crime, colonization, and oppression – will continue long after his death.