IT is the record of the post-WWII history that the Arab people of Palestine were deliberately (through sheer use/combination of international forces) deprived of their ancestral territory using the British Mandate; what was the British Mandate? It was another linguistic name of by-force possession of the land of Palestine. But the British did a classic cleverness which is always their specialty in their treatment of international affair: The mandated territories now forming Israel, the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Ghazza (Gaza) geo-Belt were partitioned by the UN General Assembly Resolution of 181 in 1947 into two States – the Arab Palestine State & the Jewish State.
Now here lies the one-eyed mathematics of the division of Palestine: Jewish State of Israel was established in May 1948 and made a UN member. But the State of Palestine was not established leaving a permanent cause of conflict to wrestle with by the people of Palestine. This is the international gangsterism done to the Palestinians in collusion with the British ingenuity. Another British-left legacy unsolved is the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir state dotted with four Pakistan-India wars since the birth of the dispute in August 1947.
The bunch of Palestine territories left out of apportionment for Israeli State – the West Bank including the Eastern Jerusalem and the Ghazza/Gaza landmass were left to rule by Jordan and Egypt; their twin rule lasted till 1967 War between the Arab states and Israel; Israel annexed those territories as a war booty. However, the UN Security Council via its famous Resolutions Nos. 242 & 338 asked Israel to vacate those territories. But it was only in the year 1993 that the Oslo Accord between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel paved the way for vacation of Israeli aggression from the above mentioned bunch of territories, the vacation physically was partial.
As a result of the Oslo Accord, the PLO was able to set up a government of its own in 1994 on some vacated territories. Bad luck, Israel blockaded Ghazza in June 2007 and started settling its nationals there despite UNSC’s open declaration that Israeli settlements are “ in flagrant violation of international law” vide their Resolution No 2334 of 23 December 2016. Earlier in their Resolution No. 1397 of 2002 the UNSC had lent support to the two state vision – Israel & Palestine States – living in harmony within secure and recognized borders. The two-state solution envisions permanent Israel-Palestine peace.
This is the structural face of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The facts speak that Israeli settlements in the Ghazza region of the Palestine territory is the major cause of running bloodiest sore on the face of the entire region. I have been stressing since long that the durable solution/facilitation of the Palestine statehood is held by Israel with the material backing of the USA. The international moral in the issue reflected by the backing of the UNSC resolutions for the two-state settlement speaks on the Palestinian side. But the actual configuration of the international moral is always based on the comparative absolute power far removed from fairness, justice and equity.
If the State of Palestine had been territorially defined by the UN General Assembly in its same resolution No. 181 of 1947 when it partitioned Palestine region into two states the matter would long have been solved and Middle East would have been conflict-free. But the international arithmetic is not that simple. Powers that can blackmail international chess-board play work their own way, no matter the outcome is moral, legitimate or pro-humanity. The USA exercises absolute workable influence in this grand play but its leverage is not seen in practice on the ground except linguistic rhetoric as its wont is from day first.
The Palestinian voice, despite support from Arab states, stands alone, a helpless hand chained in international conspiracy web; supporting states of the Palestine cause are all non-tech states and non-techs have little global games influence; Israel enjoys tech world’s backing; another related aspect of the tattered Middle East situation is that as long as the wealth of subsoil oil glitters across the Arab Peninsula the conflict of Israel-Palestine seems a running affair of bloodletting, uncontrolled. This economic factor has become more powerful; unless the oil-rich ME countries go tech powers their individual or collective voice at the global level will count less, however, their number will remain impressive.
The running phase of the Palestine-unachieved statehood dispute is the (media reports) killing of 14,500 humans on Palestine side besides colossal property losses and lethal environmental pollution caused by extant war since first week of October 2023. UN General Assembly, which had left the territories of the Arab Palestine state in 1947 undecided, can even now take up the Palestine saga by reasserting its peace-oriented role. Related to this dispute is that a geo-physical need arises for immediate Arab states to re-align their international focus, need, modulation of influence for acquiring re-reviewed backing. They have already tested the hardest times since the end of the WW-II with too much obvious outcome for them. No further time and space are available any more for depending on the already tried and tested regional and international air. President Joe Biden is all clear when he says, If there had been no Israel, we we’d have to invent one”, while speaking to Israeli President Isaac Herzog. [Youtube, Middle East Eye, 28 Oct 2022].
—The writer, a retired Secretary in AJK Govt, is a senior columnist, based in Rawalpindi.
Email: [email protected]
views expressed are writer’s own.
