A full year has passed since the beginning of the ongoing war waged by Israel against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and, in the shadow of it, the Occupation army has been carrying out continuous campaigns of raids, killing and destruction in the West Bank, as well. All the while, armed settlers are escalating their attacks on Palestinian villages relentlessly and without mercy.
Since the beginning of this continuing season of atrocities, it has been no secret that the intentions of the Israeli leadership, both on the political and military levels, have been a quest to dismantle the Gaza Strip, which is crowded with Palestinian refugees, and commit ethnic cleansing there. Ministers and military leaders have competed to make clear statements on this matter throughout this season, some of which were recorded in the lawsuit papers submitted by South Africa to the International Court of Justice. Moreover, the Israeli actions on the ground leave no room for assuming good faith towards the Palestinian people, as their livelihoods have been completely destroyed in the Gaza Strip, they have been internally displaced time and time again and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, most of them children and women, in a record-breaking toll with shocking facts beyond description.
Despite all that has happened, the political statements heard in the global space have maintained their usual coldness, as if they have not gripped the major events. This is evident given their content and satisfaction with their hollow calls that they have repeated for decades to establish a “Palestinian State living in security and peace alongside Israel”, without drawing any lessons from what has happened so far. Can we really trust that this “State”, if actually established, and according to the conditions, must remain demilitarised, will not be easy prey for one of the strongest armies in the world? Does the current experience of the brutal Israeli political and military behaviour towards the Palestinian people allow for the assumption of a secure future for this State?
The notion of a “Palestinian State” sounds really attractive and suggests a sovereign entity with complete independence but, in reality, we are talking about a literally microscopic State, which is supposed to, at best, be established on a geographically non-contiguous area. According to the best proposals presented in official speeches, it will be established on an area no more than 6,000 square kilometers, including the entire West Bank and the Gaza Strip together, i.e., the 4 June, 1967 borders. According to this “solution”, the return of Palestinian refugees to their country will not be permitted either. In other proposals that claim to be “realistic”, heard in successive American administrations, for example, the area of this “State” will be substantially reduced to about half that area, with its dismemberment into isolated population centers, making it less than the area of a small region called Transnistria, which is a microscopic, unrecognized separatist state that occupies an area of no more than 3,500 square kilometers within Moldova. However, the Moldovan example is misleading, as campaigns of genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, mass destruction and starvation have no place in that gentle Eastern European country.
It is true that the repeated statements about the establishment of a “Palestinian State alongside the State of Israel” remind the Israeli political and military leadership that its quest to end the Palestinian people’s cause through military violence is unacceptable to the international community, but these statements alone do not express sufficient seriousness after all that has happened, and is happening, in terms of Israel’s blatant disregard for international law, UN systems and international norms. The lesson that is evident from the reality of the ongoing genocide and the serious developments that have taken place should remind the world of the fact that the Israeli strategic doctrine does not tolerate the mere existence of Palestine on the map in any form, and that it only accepts a formal Palestinian Authority that has no sovereignty to bear the burden of managing “these residents” instead of the Israeli Occupation, while sovereignty remains with the Occupying authority. It also wants the authority to provide tireless services to protect Israel from the Palestinian uprising and resistance under the pretext of “security coordination”.
The Israeli leadership, which has repeatedly announced that it is determined to “change the reality in the Middle East”, as Benjamin Netanyahu himself said on the podium of the UN General Assembly, leaves no room for doubt that it is exercising its control over the region as a whole, and it is keen to demonstrate this control in public. How can a microscopic, weak and disarmed Palestinian State tolerate this control and the possibility of its leaders being besieged or even assassinated at any time Israel desires? Some do not notice that even the term “Palestine” itself is a taboo in the Israeli political, media and cultural discourse, for both the government and the opposition. This is despite the Zionist movement having been established, according to its basic literature, in order to “colonize Palestine,” as its leader, Theodor Herzl, himself wrote in his published works. The taboos also include the use of the term “Palestinian people”, which, from the Israeli perspective, simply does not exist. Israeli leaders, political, media and cultural elites speak of “residents”, “Arabs “or, at best, “Palestinians”, but never of the Palestinian people, as this description remains taboo.
Being content with stereotypical statements about the establishment of a “Palestinian State living in security and peace alongside Israel” does not express any serious intentions to establish this State. How can an occupying state that does not recognize the existence of Palestine in the first place, denies the existence of a Palestinian people, does not believe in its right to exist in this country, and continues to displace generations of Palestinians, destroys their livelihoods, seizes their lands and expands settlements on them, tolerate the existence of a Palestinian State, even if it is a microscopic state, and grant it a fair chance to live in a geographical area close to it?
One of the facts revealed by the first year of genocide in the Gaza Strip is that Israel does not care about international law, and that it places itself above the international community. Moreover, its supporters on both sides of the Atlantic guarantee it has continued immunity from being held accountable for its actions in international bodies, to the point that it tempts Israeli leaders to go so far as to punish the UN itself, for example by declaring its Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, persona non grata, imposing sanctions on the UNRWA, attacking the international peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), and continuing to bomb UN schools and headquarters in the Gaza Strip, while killing increasing numbers of its employees there. The only country in the world that dares to do all this is actually the one that should be acting like a tame lamb and tolerate the existence of a Palestinian State “living side by side in security and peace” according to these wishful statements. It is suspicious that some of the capitals that issue these statements avoid expressing any criticism at all regarding the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip and even present idealistic justifications for some of Israel’s war crimes.
I am not calling for burying the establishment of a Palestinian State and blocking its path, but rather am reminding people that nations’ right to self-determination cannot be achieved by submitting to the logic of domination that the international decision-making capitals are unwilling to deter. Without holding the Israeli Occupation accountable for the horrors, war crimes and grave violations it continues to commit, and without deterrent measures and strict sanctions imposed on the Occupying authority, as well as enabling the Palestinian people to obtain their freedom and inalienable rights, there will be no room for a just and comprehensive solution in Palestine.
-Hossam Shaker is a researcher and author, consultant in media, public relations, and mass communication for a number of organizations in Europe, and he resides in Vienna. He has an interest in analysis of European and international affairs, as well as social and media issues. His article appeared in MEMO.
