Daily Times

The Israel-Palestine region is located at the eastern shore of the Mediterranean sea. It comprises modern Israel and the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank bordering Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Mediterranean. The territory has historically remained important for the great powers; from the Romans, Muslims, to the British. For a Mediterranean power, the land serves as a strategic land bridge to the eastern half and for an Eastern power, the land is important to control its flank in the Mediterranean hosting estuaries of many important rivers and waterways connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Ships use the Suez Canal to sail between the Mediterranean and Red Sea.

Four distinct topologies constitute the region: half of it is Negev desert, an extension of Sinai desert Egypt, the Coastal Plain begins in the Gaza Strip and extends northwards to the border of Lebanon, the Hill Region starts from the foothills of Mount Hermon to the south of Jerusalem, and the Jordan Rift Valley moves along the Jordan river and continues down to the Red Sea. Israel claims the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau located on the Syrian border. The Coastal Plain hosts the major core of the country. The greatest geographic challenge for Israel is a dearth of sufficient resources combined with a lack of strategic depth. Its narrowest point between the Mediterranean coast and the Palestinian West Bank is just 9.3 miles wide.

Before the UN Partition Plan for Palestine (1947), the whole region belonged to Palestine but was controlled by Britain. The UN plan gave away 55 percent of historic Palestine for the creation of a new Jewish state; 45 percent of land went to the Arabs while Jerusalem remained under international control. The Arab states declared that the two-state partition plan favoured the Jews and subsequently rejected the formation of the State of Israel, and declared war. Over time, Israel expanded by winning the 1948 and 1967 wars, moving borders, and establishing settlements. Following the 1967 victory, it seized a huge swathe of land beyond the green line, including the entire West Bank. Many Israelis saw this as a divine sign to regain the historically sacred hills of Judea and Samaria.

Israel’s recent diplomatic normalisation with Bahrain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia catalysed Israel’s claims to legitimacy in the region. The inconsistent stands of the neighbouring countries from 1948 onwards have added to the complexity of the issue. What started as an Arab-Israel conflict gradually became the Palestine-Israel conflict

The 1993 Oslo Accords, between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and signed in Washington, divided the West Bank into three regions: 18 percent to be given to Palestinian self-rule; 22 percent of the area under Palestinian government control and Israeli security control; and 60 percent falling under full Israeli control. So here they ended up with this mess of a map. Israel’s military monitors who and what moves in and out of these regions, including Gaza and the West Bank.

The goals of settlements are to secure more geographical space for Israeli citizens, diluting the Palestinian concentration in the West Bank, and to attain strategic depth across the Jordan Valley; a resourceful patch extended on the west bank of Jordan river, fertile, and militarily important to oversee the rest of the West Bank area. Settlers from all over the US and Europe have moved there for both practical and ideological reasons. The settlements are guarded by Israeli military checkpoints, properly developed, inter-connected, and equipped with modern facilities. UN resolution 446 (1979) determined that “these settlements have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East”.

Palestinians are sandwiched and unwillingly follow the Israeli separation laws with limited freedom of mobility. Palestinian have less control over their economic resources and territory, bringing them to a state of utter disgrace and deprivation. They seek permission from Israeli authorities before constructing homes on the land which they consider their own. Most Palestinians oppose annexations as they fear more eviction, expropriating more lands, more displacements, above all, the extinction of their strong Arab-Islamic national identity in the region. The arrangement is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

Jerusalem is the heart of the conflict. It has Al-Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site for Muslims where they believe that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) started his journey to visit God; the Western Wall, part of the holiest site in the world for Jews since 567 BC; and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the place where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected. The conflict of ownership dates back three millennia and is entrenched in profound religious roots. The city stands at the crossroads of all Abrahamic religions and witnessed a history of procrastinated wars, displacements, and settlements. The religious outlook of Jerusalem keeps changing along with its geographical contours. It is perhaps the most contentious real state of the world.

The recent unrest in occupied Palestine started with fears of an attempt to allow a new Israeli settlement in Sheikh Jarrah, a small colony of occupied Eastern Jerusalem. Israeli law allows only Jews to claim back their properties if they can prove title deeds before the 1948 war. No such law prevails for non-Jews. The unrest turned violent when Israeli police entered the compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque, where tens of thousands of Muslims were praying during Ramzan. The Israeli government passed a decree in 2019 that not more than 10,000 people can gather for prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, whose compound is sacred for Jews as the Temple Mount. Many Muslims fear that Jews want to build a synagogue in the compound.

Israel does not view the encroachments as annexation. Rather, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls it “applying sovereignty over our homeland”. Naftali Bennett, former Israel’s defense minister called settlements “an opportunity to anchor our security for generations and to cherish forever the land of our forefathers’’.

Far-right religious interpretations perpetuated the conflict. Many exclusivist Jews believe that they are the only rewarded, righteous, and entrusted followers to hold and execute the word of God on Earth while all other religions are deviating bystanders in the divine scheme. Many Muslim groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood also take inference from their holy book that Jews are eternal enemies of Islam and they must go to any extreme to avoid the establishment of an independent Jewish state.

The international community including the UN, EU and OIC have already condemned Israel’s defiance to international conventions and its human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has developed a well-equipped army to defend its vulnerable geography, and enjoys support from Washington and therefore ignores calls for calm. An Iman wrote of recent Israeli airstrikes on Gaza: “I put the kids to sleep in our bedroom, so that when we die, we die together, and no one will live to mourn the loss of another one.”

Israel’s recent diplomatic normalisation with Bahrain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia catalysed Israel’s claims to legitimacy in the region. The inconsistent stands of the neighbouring countries from 1948 onwards have added to the complexity of the issue. What started as an Arab-Israel conflict gradually became the Palestine-Israel conflict.

The conflict has both ideological and geographical limitations. The sensitive location of the region, growing population of both Israel and Palestine, limited exploitable land, galvanised religious sentiments, and the increasing plight of the local Palestinians, all accounted for this conflict to become a challenge for the diplomatic capitals. Practically, the current mapping of the area, as explained, cannot sustain without effective diplomatic enforcement. Moreover, peace deals in history turned void due to the lack of trust and resolve to co-exist. Israel’s attempts to encroach upon the green line used to fuel the conflict, sometimes for domestic political consumption. A comprehensive territorial agreement cannot work without tapping the common socio-geographical realities, re-evaluating the conflict using a sociological approach instead of an ideological one, and political will to disagree in an agreeable manner by supporting pluralism for sustainable peace amid acute ethno-religious antagonism. The authors, intellectuals, artists, businessmen, musicians, and other sections of the civil society from both sides would have to unite and come forth to defy hatred.

The writer is an academic, columnist, and public policy researcher