PALESTINE : an undying war
“Adolf Hitler did not want to exterminate the Jews, he only wanted to expel them from Germany, it was Mufti Al Hussein who suggested extermination, saying if you expel them they will all come here to Palestine, burn them all.”
These were the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the 2015 International Zionist Conference.
This phrase may partly explain the violence that the government of Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinian polity.
But before we begin with the narrative of recent months, it is good to give a general summary of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The conflict originated in 1948 after the United Nations proposed Resolution 18, which consisted of a partition plan, which would create a Jewish State and an Arab State.
Thus in 1948 the autonomous state of Israel was born, the Arabs rejected this agreement.
Also in 1948 the Arab League consisting of Iraq, Egypt, Transjordan and Syria attacked Israel, which won and annihilated practically 85% of the Arab population.
The Arab population remembers this period as Nakba (catastrophe).
In 1967 Israel preventively defended itself and during the Six Day War attacks the Arab League.
It invaded Arab countries and occupied the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jerusalem, Mount Sinai and the Golan Heights.
The United Nations attacked Israel declaring these conquests illegal despite this Israel continued to occupy these territories freely and in punishment.
Especially the Gaza Strip.
In 2006 In Palestine the Hamas party came to power with the support of Qatar and Iran.
From this point on, Gaza will no longer have democratic elections.
It is crucial to point out that Hamas is a terrorist group that has nothing to do with the Palestinian people.
Gaza is controlled by Israel which commands its tax system, its territorial waters and its airspace.
The strip is also referred to as an open-air prison, because unfortunately for years it has been under strict Israeli control, which has placed a total embargo.
In Gaza, basic necessities such as food, medicine, water and electricity are not always available.
Just think that no potable water flows in the taps but only Salt water, the potable water is used only for food use.
In addition, the city is constantly bombed by the Israeli government, and the violence perpetrated by the Jewish government increases especially during the month of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims.
Before addressing the events that happened in October 2023, it is good to make a premise. The Israeli government fortunately does not represent all Jews.
One of the countless examples of condemnation is that of a former Israeli army general and former number two intelligence officer who said “Israel does to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to the Jews.”
Hamas on October 7, 2023 attacked Israel by hitting it with rockets and destroying the wall that Israel had built to isolate Gaza.
In addition to this damage a large number of Israeli civilians unfortunately died the number is around 600 dead who were 3 kilometres from the Gaza Strip for a music festival
Israel declared war on the Palestinians headed by Netanyahu.
During this conflict that still lasts to this day Israel is committing real war crimes
To date the casualties:
Israelis total 1400 (Tel Aviv)
Palestinians 10,500 including 4300 children (Gaza health ministry)
How have Western governments responded?
European states and America have supported Israel because of its power to defend itself without taking into consideration the context because this war is not only about Hamas and Israel, but also about the civilian population of Gaz.
The population of Gaza is around two million 70% of the population are refugees and 80% are dependent on humanitarian aid.
The European Union has blocked since the beginning of the conflict the funds intended for the development of Gaza which amounted to $7,000,000, this is having very serious consequences for the population of the territory.
Israel has given the occupied population only 24 hours to evacuate more than 1 million people before the siege.
Bibi’s government has full power of Gaza, nothing can enter without their consent, not enough basic necessities are coming into the strip.
Because for now only the Rafah Crossing which is on the border with Egypt is open.
Even today two other Crossings remain closed.
Israel for years has been violating intentional rights, below I leave you two examples
-The right of occupation of foreign territories governed by the 1907 Hague Convention, both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank according to the international community have been designated since 1967 as militarily occupied territories by Israel.
The inhabitants of an occupied territory qualify as “PROTECTED PERSONS”.
A state therefore cannot exercise control over a territory it occupies and at the same time militarily attack, claiming that it poses a threat.
On the contrary, as an occupying power Israel has a duty to protect lives and property within the occupied territory.
-Right to self-defence an occupying power cannot justify the use of military force as a legitimate exercise of self-defence in a territory for which it is responsible precisely as occupier.
The international community must strongly condemn all violations that Israel is doing this not only to preserve lives but also to preserve its credibility
Israel in addition to violating international laws has also committed war crimes.
How does the Jurisdiction of the international criminal court work?
-Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court is the court, which judges individuals responsible for war crimes can prosecute only if the alleged crime was committed by a citizen or on the territory of a state, which has accepted the Jurisdiction of the Court Israel does not recognize Palestine does.
If the court were to issue warrants, it is unlikely that Israel would cooperate because it does not recognize it.
Why is Israel doing all this?
The words you are about to read are solely my personal thoughts.
I firmly believe that Israel’s primary objective is not Hamas, because you cannot compare the military strength of the two factions; the former has a clear advantage.
The Israeli goal is to have full power of the lands that they claim as their property.
And in order to do this it is carrying out ethnic cleansing.
The definition of ethnic cleansing is: “A program of elimination of minorities, carried out through their forcible removal or by resorting to acts of military aggression and violence, in order to safeguard the identity and purity of an ethnic group.”
If we take up the opening paragraph of this article ,the Israeli prime minister blames the Holocaust on a Palestinian.
This is the excuse that the government of Israel is using to justify its abuse of power .
Another example, which makes me think of the ethnic cleansing operation, is to bomb the Gaza Strip indiscriminately, and occupy the homes of Palestinians solely because they have the power to do so.
Since 1948 the Palestinian people have been forced to suffer in silence the atrocities they are subjected to by Israel, the Western perhaps stand by defending Israel with the sword.
The Western world is complicit in all the victims who have died during these years. They must have in their conscience all those children who died.
They must have in their conscience all those children who have been deprived of the chance to have a childhood, and to have the chance to be naive.
They must have in their conscience all those broken families.
I hope that in the nearer future Western governments will answer this question:
Why did you support a state that has the highest number of international sanctions regarding the violation of human rights, and especially why did you do nothing?
I would like to conclude this article with a part of the interview of former French Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin regarding this conflict
“The challenge says to date it does not systematise an interlocutor neither on the Israeli side, nor on the Palestinian side.
Israel goes on to say that it has the right to self-defence, but this right cannot be indiscriminate revenge.
One must also have courage ,and diplomacy is just that.
Diplomacy is being able to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that is the cunning of history when something can happen after all that gives hope .
The debate should not be about the rhetorical choice of words,
the debate today is about action we have to act and when you think about action there are two options war, war, war or it is about trying to move towards peace and I repeat it is in Israel’s interest”
