Daily Times

The IDF forces took aggressive action on the day when Palestinians were commemorating what they call al-Nakba, the Catastrophe. Nostalgically, it commemorates the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who were forced or driven from their homes in the Arab-Israeli war, which began the day after Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. Seemingly, Netanyahu‘s government continues to impose institutionalised discrimination against Palestinians living under its rule in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). It has displaced hundreds of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, by way of home demolitions and the imposition of other coercive measures. Israeli forces continue to use excessive force during law enforcement activities in Israel and the OPT.

Last year, Israel demolished 848 Palestinian residential and livelihood structures in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, displacing 996 people, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The law of occupation prohibits such destruction unless necessary for military operations. Punitive demolitions constitute collective punishment and are prohibited under international law. In this regard, the planned evictions of the Palestinians from the occupied East Jerusalem vicinities of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan remain highly culpable.

And yet the so- called peace deal orchestrated between the Gulf States plus Morocco, Sudan, and Israel — the Abraham Accords — failed to resolve the chronic Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Still, apprehensions are brooding in Jordan, that the terminology used in the joint statement reflects the Trump-Netanyahu devious attempt to change the status quo of the occupied East Jerusalem/ the Aqsa Mosque — thereby opening- up the Temple Mount for Jewish prayer and ultimately occupying the area along with Dome of the Rock, stand inside the 35 acres compound called Haram Al- Sharif.

The ICC would be justified to investigate Israel’s crimes against humanity. The latest killings of Palestinians as well as the Israeli bombing of the civilian buildings, including media outlets in Gaza — all constitute war crimes under international law

Against this backdrop, the previously orchestrated annexation trajectory is being mischievously replaced with the ongoing evictions trajectory which is intrinsically meant to have a complete erasing of the Palestinians from their own lands — a move that would be resisted to the hilt, by the Palestinians. Indeed, the waning of the Abraham Accords seems undeniable. Former secretary of State John Kerry, now Biden’s top climate envoy, told a Washington audience in 2016 that there was no chance of striking normalisation pacts before signing a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. “There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world,” he said. “That is a hard reality.”

Needless to say, serious violations of international law have been recently committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip as the same were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza. In this context, The Hague- based International Criminal Court (ICC) is justified to hold an investigation into Israel’s crimes against humanity. The latest Israeli killing of the Palestinians in Gaza as well as the Israeli bombing of the civilian buildings, including media outlets in Gaza — are all are war crimes under international law.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for work to be done on sending international peacekeepers to the region to help safeguard the Palestinians, a proposal Turkey first made in 2018. PM Imran Khan has reassured Palestinian President Abbas of Pakistan’s efforts in mobilising the international community against flagrant violations of human rights and international law — manifested by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s recent visit to the UN’s headquarters in New York where he demonstrated his astute diplomatic skills.

Pakistan urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to immediately initiate steps to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity as Israel violated the council resolutions. “In the grim backdrop of the deteriorating situation in the region, we urge the Security Council to fulfil its Charter obligations, to call for an immediate halt to Israel’s use of disproportionate and arbitrary force; to offer protections to the Palestinian civilians who are bearing the brunt of the Israeli attacks,” said Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN. Rightly, Pakistan also urged for the deployment of an International protection force in Palestine.

There is an international consensus that the two state solution remains the only viable peace discourse vis-a-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his op-ed “Reiterating the Keys to Peace”, published in The Boston Globe on 20 December 2006, former US President Jimmy Carter while quoting from his celebrated book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, writes: “UN resolutions, the Camp David Accords of 1978, the Oslo Agreement of 1993, official US Policy, and the International Roadmap for Peace are all based on the premise that Israel withdraw from occupied territories Also, Palestinians must accept the same commitment made by the 23 Arab nations in 2002: to recognise Israel’s right to live in peace within its legal borders. These are the two keys to peace.’

“I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and to enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy.” President Jo Biden has also urged the two-state solution as the only way to lasting peace .The fact remains that the pro-Israeli American sentiments are declining among the American youth, while the public masses in Europe’s major cities are also echoing against the repressive Israeli policies vis-a vis the Palestinians. By now, Israelis must not harbour no doubt that in the current scuffle, Hamas emerged victorious. The Muslim world’s powers, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Malaysia, and Indonesia all stood united against Israel. Also, China and Russia criticised Israeli policies.

The prescience of the situation holds that if no reconciliation is made pragmatically, the current crises may turn into a large- scale war in the Middle East. Despite a truce on May 21, the situation on both sides is still tense and unpredictable. Therefore, a process of reconciliation led by the plan of reconstructing Gaza must be advanced to achieve a sense of enduring peace.

(Concluded)

The writer is an independent ‘IR’ researcher and international law analyst based in Pakistan