Daily Times

The other day a friend of mine sent me a brief video clip where an Israeli soldier was seen crushing the head of a Palestinian child. On hearing the shrieks of the little boy, who couldn’t have been more than six or years old, my blood curdled. I couldn’t stomach watching the footage to the end. I later learned that the child had died while reciting the Kalima.

Such inhumanity makes a mockery of Creation itself. Yet it seems that it is the fate of the Palestinians to live in such misery. Jewish history also delivered them the Holocaust, which represents an indelible blot on mankind. Thus, many European countries have criminalised Holocaust denial. But then Israel is mercilessly committing its own atrocities against women and children. If violence can escalate at such rapid pace, as we saw earlier this month, one can only imagine the sheer devastation if a major war broke out. Two armies in combat is one thing. Targeting unarmed civilians is something else; no matter that the order comes from the top. Yet from the very beginning of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Israelis have been guilty of all kinds of war crimes, including genocide.

The latest round of violence erupted over the expulsion of Palestinian families from their own land as well as Israeli raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. The Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip left 248 Palestinians dead and close to 2,000 injured.

The seeds of Zionism were sown in Palestinian lands since the Balfour Declaration in 1917 — a statement issued by Britain underscoring support the establishment of “a national Jewish home” in what constitutes modern day Palestinian territories. This promise was fulfilled in 1948 when a small portion of Palestinian land, near the Golan Heights, was allotted to the new State of Israel. This became a magnet for Jewish communities around the world fleeing fascism in Europe. With American economic and military aid, the new state had entrenched itself in Palestinian land within 20 years Thus impelled by the Zionist instinct of expansionism — Israel waged full-scale war against the entire might of the Middle-Eastern countries in 1967. This only lasted six days but was sufficient time to seize the remaining Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Thus Israel over-ran a huge portion of Palestinian land by effectively displacing Palestinians — who had been living there for centuries — from their homes and forcing them to seek refuge in the Gaza Strip.

Two armies in combat is one thing. Targeting unarmed civilians is something else; no matter that the order comes from the top

Gaza borders Egypt but also Israel, which separates it from the West Bank. Thus the tragedy is that Gaza is surrounded on all three sides by hostile territories. Egypt’s Rafah border crossing provides a good supply line to the Palestinians but, in the past, has been blocked at the behest of Israelis who fear that Hamas will import arms from other countries. Thereby enabling Israel to tighten its blockade of Gaza and devastating the local economy in what has been termed the world’s largest open-air prison.

If one takes stock of the last 73 years, one can safely conclude that following the 6-day War of 1967, the balance of power gravely tilted in favour of Israel and against the Palestinians. Furthermore, confrontation between the two would only lead to the devastation of Palestinians living in Gaza. If this conflict is prolonged, it will be the Palestinians who continue to suffer. Many proposals have been put forward over the years to resolve this issue peacefully. None has been successful.

There have been suggestions of a one-state and two-state solution. The Oslo Accords were signed in 1993 as confidence-building measures to create trust between Israelis and Palestinians and bring peace to the region. Yet less than a decade later, the reign once again became a theatre of war.

Looking at the prevalent situation, one feels that living in a perpetual state of egregious hatred, doubt and mistrust is worse than Hell.

The writer is a former member of the Provincial Civil Service, and an author of Moments in Silence