Daily Times

Three young boys of Israeli parents were abducted on June 12 from the vicinity of a Jewish settlement in Hebron, West Bank. The Israeli government immediately fingered Hamas and sought the help of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the release of the teenagers. Mahmud Abbas, the PA president, condemned the abduction and urged their immediate release. Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Netanyahu, in order to demonstrate his zero tolerance for terrorist activities, instructed the military to rescue the children. The military as expected launched a manhunt, detained over 400 Palestinians and ravaged Palestinian homes. The excesses of the manhunt annoyed civilians and Palestinian youngsters protested by pelting stones at Israeli soldiers. The soldiers responded with bullets: two Palestinians were killed and many injured. The Israeli manhunt unfortunately did not succeed and, two weeks later, the bodies of the abducted teenagers were found in a field close to the settlement where the parents of the deceased children live. The Israeli government accused the PA of complicity in the murder while the Palestinians dismissed the accusation and said it is the Israeli government that is responsible for security in the occupied territory. The pain the parents of the deceased children are going through is beyond comprehension and our hearts go out to them. No sensible person could wish any parent anywhere in the world to experience such a tragedy. The question arises: why and who would resort to the abduction and subsequent assassination of innocent children?
Following the collapse of the charade of peace talks, the Palestinians forged a reconciliation between their two principal groups and Hamas joined the PA led by Mahmud Abbas. This angered Netanyahu and he retaliated by withholding billions of dollars in tax revenue collected on behalf of the PA. Even this was not enough. Netanyahu recently approved another settlement of 3,100 homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlement programme in the occupied territory encompassing the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem has been one of the major bones of contention in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Oslo Accords, accepted by both Israel and the Palestinians, recognised the two-state solution implying that the territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war would form the state of Palestine. In return, the Palestinians recognised the existence of Israel. The Oslo Accords generated a ray of hope — the PA established its base in Ramallah and donors generously supported the building of security and administrative infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza. The issues of the Palestinian refugees’ right to return home and the establishment of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem remained unresolved. It was hoped that these issues would be settled through dialogue in the coming years but this remained wishful thinking.
The stalemate in the implementation of the peace accord and continued expansion of settlements in the occupied territory, among others, triggered the second ‘intifada’ in September 2000. Israel built the ‘separation’ wall, destroyed Palestinian houses, stopped transportation of commodities and killed over 3,500 civilians in the West Bank and Gaza. Following the election, Hamas came to power in Gaza a few years later. Israel dismissed the election and refused to accept Hamas as a legitimate authority in Gaza. They imposed a blockade and turned the territory into a cage. Even the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was sealed, making transportation of food or medicine impossible. Over 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza became victims of the Israeli blockade. In the last 10 years, Israeli troops have marched into Gaza numerous times, ransacked the homes of Palestinians to round up people ‘responsible’ for firing rockets at Israel. Israel has also resorted to targeted assassinations and has killed Mohamed Yunus, the founder of Hamas, and Ratansi, Yunus’s successor.

The construction of the wall was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice. The wall separated the farmers from the land, making it impossible to cultivate and harvest produce. People living in the West Bank are required to pass through check posts guarded by Israeli troops and these Palestinians are subjected to daily humiliation while crossing checkpoints to earn their livelihood. The building of settlements in the occupied territories undermines the prospect of a separate homeland for Palestinians. President George H W Bush at one stage withheld funding in reaction to settlement building in the West Bank. Since signing the Oslo Accords, the Jewish population in these settlements has increased from 130,000 to over 640,000. If the settlements continue to expand at their present scale, and most likely they will, soon there will be no land available for Palestine.

It is difficult to comprehend what the Israeli leadership wants. They say they want a two state solution but do not want to leave any land for the Palestinians. They want security but prefer for the Palestinians to live in servitude. They want the PA to deal with them on their own terms. It is not acceptable to the Israeli government for the PA to seek membership of the UN and its agencies. The Israeli government wants to decide whom the PA should form a coalition with and who should be put behind bars. Thousands of Palestinian prisoners have been in jail for years without access to legal recourse. In other words, the Palestinians will have to come to terms with Israel in order to exist individually and as a nation. This notion of subjugation unfortunately promotes the concept of ‘useful violence’, which is not desirable either for the Palestinians or for the state of Israel. Israel is militarily strong and has the unqualified support of the US. It therefore feels no compulsion to honour international law or public opinion. The outpouring of support for the Palestinian statehood resolution at the UN General Assembly in November 2012, which was opposed by only nine countries and endorsed by 138, confirms that Israel and her handful of allies are on the wrong side of the tide. No country on earth can ensure its security while over four million people in its neighbourhood, almost half of its own population, are forced to live in servitude. President Obama, during his visit to the Middle East in March 2013, reminded Israel to respect the Palestinians’ right to a state. He said, “It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of his own.”

Netanyahu has authorised air strikes on Gaza and the air force has begun its operation. Hamas and its associates will respond with whatever arsenal they have. The conflict might even spread to the West Bank and another Palestinian uprising cannot be ruled out. However, the uprising in 2014 will be very different from what happened in 2000. Now more militant outfits are operating in the region with sophisticated ammunition and they are likely to put their weight behind Palestinian radical outfits. Moreover, there is a split in the international community — Russia and the US have drifted apart over Ukraine. Russia came to the help of Syrian leader Assad, provided fighter aircraft to Iraq and demonstrated more understanding of Iran’s nuclear programme. Under this newly polarised environment, Israel can expect hard-hitting reprisals from its enemy. This might doom the peace process for good and engulf the entire region in greater chaos.

The author is a former official of the UN