Editorial:
Costs of an unequal war(Israel-Palestine[gaza] conflict)
Keywords: Israel-Palestine conflict, Gaza conflict, Gaza strip, unequal war, Gaza war
For every operation that Israel launches on Gaza and the Palestinian people, the resistance becomes stronger and more determined
Over the last two weekends, demonstrators have been gathering at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Young men wearing the keffiyah
chant “Palestine will be free,” while others sing “Free Free
Palestine,” holding placards, banners, flags and dummy coffins that
demand an end to military aid to Israel, ask for the Gaza war to be over
and ask that the leaders of Israel be tried for war crimes against
Palestinians. During the first week, there were about 1,000 protesters.
This past Sunday, the estimated number of people at the protest exceeded
6,000. As is the standard procedure in the United States, squads of
police personnel walked alongside the protesters.
Anguished voices
The protests have been peaceful but the demands are made vociferously
and with much anguish. The gathering on Sunday made its way down the
Market Street and ended at the Civic Centre, one of the seats of power
in San Francisco, which adjoins the United Nations Plaza. On the steps
of the Civic Centre, young Palestinian women recited poetry in which
they talked about trauma, hurt and anxiety. Students and professors made
speeches telling people that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one
between unequal powers. Some sections supported armed resistance, while
others said that both states can coexist peacefully. However, there was
broad agreement that not resisting would mean inviting the planned and
painfully slow genocide of their people. The protesters were not shy
about using the word “apartheid” to describe Israeli policies towards
the Palestinians.
There is no longer any doubt that the Palestinian question needs more international attention and global deliberation.
In pre- and post-protest discussions with some demonstrators, the sense
of trauma was palpable. These are young people who have moved to
different countries to escape the conflict. They have forged new lives
and careers as students, caregivers, motel operators and technology
professionals. The last two weeks have witnessed some of the biggest
worldwide mobilisation for Gaza. The Palestinian diaspora in Europe and
the United States, supported by people of various countries, have all
rallied in favour of Gaza and asked for an end to the current assault on
the Strip. The only protest that has turned violent so far occurred in
Paris.
The most recent round of violence between Israel and Palestine has been
precipitated by a number of factors. The immediate cause was the alleged
kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in mid-June. Following
the multiple abductions, the Israeli Defence Forces launched Operation
Brother’s Keeper, under which over 300 Palestinians were rounded up and
questioned. From the beginning, it was unclear who was behind the
kidnappings. While Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused
Hamas, the Palestinian Authority said there was no evidence of Hamas
involvement. Hamas also denied that it had kidnapped the youths. The
three youths were later found dead in a field near Hebron with
conflicting reports suggesting that they had been killed soon after
abduction or had been killed recently.
Operation Brother’s Keeper resulted in a massive manhunt for possible
suspects with little evidence. Further, revenge attacks on Palestinian
youths began to occur with botched kidnapping attempts and the burning
of a Palestinian boy by Jewish extremists. Three weeks after the Israeli
youth disappeared, Hamas fired 100 rockets into the Israeli territory.
On July 8, Israel began responding by firing back in what is now called
Operation Protective Edge.
Interestingly, Israel has somewhat agreed that the killings might have
been perpetrated not by Hamas but by a Hamas splinter group called the
Qawasameh clan that has often gone against the edicts of Hamas leaders.
This begs the question: what is this current war really about?
The recent hostilities are not rooted in only the immediate tensions
between Israel and Palestine; they are a product of recent changes that
have taken place in the region. In June 2014, Hamas and Fatah, two
groups politically at odds in Palestine, buried their long-standing
differences, sending tremors through Israel which thinks that with the
reuniting of these groups, terrorism will get a boost, i.e., Hamas will
drag the more moderate Fatah towards extremism. The manner in which
Operation Brother’s Keeper was initiated suggests that the main
endeavour was not just to find the missing youths but to use the
incident as a pretext to take out Hamas targets and their supporters.
This would make the Palestinian Unity government seem weak and
ineffective in combating Israeli aggression and controlling its own
territory.
In Israel, both the Knesset and the government agree that resuming
hostilities against the Palestinian territories best safeguards the
interests of the Israeli state and people. The Knesset, with a strong
presence of the Zionist right, has members who have made strong
anti-Palestine pronouncements. Ayelet Shaked, a member of the Knesset
representing the Jewish Home Party, stated that the conflict could not
end until all Palestinians, including women and children, were “wiped
out.” More recently, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Moshe Feiglin,
wrote strongly about a ground invasion with the entire capacity of the
Israeli Defence Forces and bombing of Gaza with little warning as a
‘solution’ to the Gaza issue. Similarly, Gilad Sharon, son of Ariel
Sharon, has suggested that Israel flatten Gaza like Hiroshima.
The Palestinian Unity government has a component of the right, but the
presence of Fatah helps temper Hamas. However, peace deals and
ceasefires have been a lot harder to negotiate. As it is, Hamas has
repeatedly accused Israel of sanctioning settlements even though
ceasefire norms were in place. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the
Palestinian Authority and a Fatah member, is also caught between a rock
and a hard place, as he has been asked by Mr. Netanyahu to choose
between a deal with Hamas or Israel.
Last July, former U.S. presidential hopeful John Kerry, along with
Martin Indyk from the Brookings Institution, tried to restart peace
talks between Israel and Palestine. The talks were supposed to take
place over 10 months and reach a settlement on the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict. The talks broke down several times. Mr. Netanyahu rejected the
Palestinians’ right of return, while Mr. Abbas said they didn’t want a
single Israeli settlement on Palestinian land. In January 2014, Israel
approved 1,400 settlement homes in a move that sent a negative signal to
the Palestinian Authority. This, combined with repeated failures to
release Palestinian prisoners in Israel, led to a lack of confidence on
the side of the Palestinian Authority.
Trust deficit
The United States has taken a measured stance on the issue by blaming
both sides for the breakdown of the 2013-2014 talks. Mr. Kerry went on
record that a third Intifada was in the offing if the current talks
didn’t succeed. The recent round of hostilities suggests that talks are
no longer working because both sides display a basic trust deficit.
For Israel, Hamas is more of a threat than the Palestinian Unity
government and Israel is uncertain if the Palestinian government can
strong-arm Hamas. It is, then, not surprising that personal protection
of Israeli territory and Israelis in the settlements has taken priority
over trying to build confidence and trust between the two states.
Operation Protective Edge has claimed over 600 Palestinian lives, while
the Israeli death count stands at less than 50. Over the last two weeks,
images have surfaced of Israeli people roosting atop a hill watching
the bombardment of Palestinian targets. Flechette munitions have been
used against civilians. Humanitarian groups report a grave crisis in
Gaza with hospitals working at full capacity amid rocket attacks.
What is new about the Israel-Gaza conflict is that Israel seems to be
losing much popular support internationally, as studies and reports
establish that the Israel-Palestine conflict has been a lopsided one for
many decades, that the Israeli state has practised segregation and
influx control, not unlike the apartheid regime in South Africa, and
that its means of fighting and adherence to a real lasting peace with
Palestine are part of carefully-crafted doublespeak.
There is no longer any doubt that the Palestinian question needs more
international attention and global deliberation. This is a slow genocide
of a people who have struggled against occupation since 1948 or 1967,
depending on the viewpoint people adhere to. Google images have
accurately shown how the Palestinian territory has reduced over the
decades. The paradox is stark and unavoidable — for every operation that
Israel launches on Gaza and the Palestinian people, the Palestinian
resistance becomes stronger and more determined.
(Vasundhara Sirnate is the Chief Coordinator of Research at The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy.)
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