A bloody threshold has been crossed in Gaza. More than 12,000 Palestinians have been martyred by incessant Israeli bombing. More than four thousand of them are children. A world leader aptly described Gaza as a grave yard of children. As the Palestinian death toll mounts, Israel, backed by the US and its allies, refuses to heed calls for a ceasefire. These calls are being led by the UN, but Tel Aviv still wants to satiate its bloodlust and murder more Palestinians in the garb of countering Hamas.
To thoroughly understand the Palestinian issue, a comprehensive look has to be taken at the history of the contested land, to which both the Palestinians and the Israelis lay a claim. This unfortunate land has not seen much peace, since the two states of Israel and Palestine were established in 1948. These two states were established in 1948, through a United Nations resolution, on the territory that had been colonized by the British. Before the British mandate of the early 20th century, the region had been ruled by a number of empires, including the Romans, Arabs and the Ottomans. The European nations, especially the British, appropriated much of the land belonging to the Palestinians. On this land, the Jewish people, living in the West, were relocated. This process was done under the “Balfour Declaration which was issued by the British Foreign Secretary in November 1917.
The Balfour Declaration briefly states, “His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment of a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people, and will use their endeavours to facilitate the achievements of the object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish Communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country”.
During WW-II, the British again needed the support of the European Jewish communities. In return, more Jews from European countries were allowed to move into the Palestine. Holocaust also forced millions of Jews from European countries to land in Palestine. The Palestinians obviously resisted this exodus of Jews into their land which had been possessed by their ancestors for centuries. The Palestinians also questioned and resisted this forced repatriation of Jews and usurpation of their territory. Zionist organization like Irgan intensified their terrorism against the British after the WW-II, thus pressurizing the latter to establish a Jewish State. Thus, two states were established under the auspices of the UN in 1948. These two states were Israel for the Jews and Palestine for Arab Muslims.
The Palestinians latter questioned the legitimacy of the partition. They claimed that they were living on these lands for centuries, which were now given to the Jews. In spite of the unjust move by Britain and other western powers, the Muslim countries at that time did not have military might to challenge pro-Israel powers like the UK and the US. Nevertheless, the post-colonial Arab states: Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia refused to recognize the newly-established Zionist State of Israel. The non-recognition of Israel by the Arab States, led to a military attack on the Israeli State the day after its birth. Lacking any coherent military strategy, the five Arab States failed to defeat Israel.
Israel was strongly supported by the US, which aimed at countering Communism in the Middle East through the Security State of Israel. Later wars between Arab States and Israel took place in 1967 and 1973. Both these wars on the whole, went badly for the Arab States. After the 1967 War, Israel took over all of the historical Palestine, as well as additional territory from Egypt and Syria. By the end of the war, it had expelled 300, 300 Palestinians from their homes including 130,000 who were expelled in 1948. Israel also gained territory which was three times its original size.
Having pragmatically analyzed the situation, Egypt thought it wise to negotiate terms of peace with Israel in 1978. The mediations were done under US auspices in Camp David, USA. Egypt was returned its territory in the Sinai desert for formally recognizing the State of Israel. The ‘Camp David Accords’ reflected the diplomatic and military ascendency of Israel over the Arab States. Thus, having lost all confidence in the Arab governments, several Palestinian militant organizations, such as Palestine Liberation Organization, continued their struggle, both militarily and politically, for obtaining a separate state for the Palestinian over the next decade.
The PLO led by Yasser Arafat eventually made peace with Israel under the ‘Oslo Accords’ (1993). The Oslo Accords envisaged a two-state solution for the crises, i.e. separate states for the Palestinians and the Jews. The subsequent Israeli governments, however, reneged on the two-state solution. Both Israeli leadership and the PLO paid a heavy price for this peace. The Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, responsible for Oslo Accords, was killed by a fundamentalist Jew. The PLO also faced stern criticism over the peace accords. This political and militant nationalism on the one hand eroded the possibility of peace with Israel and on the other hand widened the Intra-Palestinian divide. New political groups like Hamas emerged. Hamas had its origin in 1987 when armed resistance was carried out against Israel by Palestinian youths in what is known as First Intifada. Hamas soon established its control in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli forces left the area.
Overtime, some other Muslim Arab countries also established peace with Israel and diplomatically recognized the country. Only over the last couple of years, Arab countries like Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan made peace with Israel and thus recognized the country through ‘The Abraham Accords.’ Some scholars speculate that one of the reasons for Hamas to attack Israel was to put the ‘Abraham Accords’ on the backburner. The open-air jail in which the Palestinian were living without any basic facilities, for the last so many years, also stretched their patience thin. The world community must realize that there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A negotiated agreement of the protected conflict has to be found which also takes Palestinians’ aspiration into account.
—The writer, based in Islamabad, is a former Health Minister of KP.
Email: [email protected]
views expressed are writer’s own.
