The Tel Aviv regime continues with its campaign of genocide and inflicted starvation in Gaza, brutal forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements there – all played out on television screens before the eyes of the world and
under the nose of the international community. But the state of Israel and its backers cannot hope to sustain this approach in the longer term. Nor will the courageous struggling peoples of the region be cowed in the face of continuing occupation, injustice, and menace indefinitely. By Dr. Aqel Taqaz
In just this past month, the Palestinian people have solemnly commemorated the 77th anniversary of the Nakba [meaning “Catastrophe” in Arabic], which officially took effect on 15 May 1948 when the jurisdiction of the state of Israel was declared on Palestinian land – including more than half the area on which the state of Palestine was supposed to be established pursuant to Partition Resolution 181 issued by the United Nations on 29 November 1947 (later to be recognised by that same body as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People).
The establishment of the state of Israel was accompanied by violent rampages by Zionist militias in which many brutal massacres were committed against the mostly defenceless indigenous civilian population – forcing them out of their homesteads, villages, towns, and cities and into squalid refugee camps in neighbouring Arab countries. More than half of the Palestinian people were immediately displaced, while the establishing of a Palestinian state to govern the remaining territory – comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip, not even exceeding 22% of the original area of Palestine – was prohibited. (Instead, the West Bank was to be administered by Jordan and Gaza by Egypt.)
However, the perpetration of this terrible injustice by Israel did not stop there… Unabated intimidation, state violence and terrorism, as well as continued brutal massacres against the Palestinians continued. And in the June 1967 War, Israel moved to occupy the remainder of historic Palestine as well as sovereign territories in Egypt and Syria (Sinai and the Golan Heights respectively). These illegal occupations continue to this very day.
The period from 1967 until the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, during which the Palestinian Authority was established, witnessed many dramatic events, including “Black September” in 1970 in Jordan; the 1973 War; as well as repeated Israeli invasions of neighbouring Lebanon, culminating in the siege of Beirut in 1982 and the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from the country. The 1982 siege culminated in the atrocity that was the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in the September of that year, perpetrated by Israeli forces and in cooperation with the right-wing Falangist militias allied to them.
When the Oslo Accords were signed, many believed that a solution to the conflict was on the horizon, especially with the Palestinian side having made a historic concession by agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state on less than half the area allocated by the 1947 partition resolution.
However, the reality was that the Israeli right used Oslo and its apparent goodwill as a smokescreen to continue ahead with its nefarious designs… Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the agreement on behalf of Israel, was promptly assassinated paving the way for the most extreme and right-wing currents in Israeli politics to make inroads to the corridors of power and, over a course of years, manipulate the political and societal consensus to their own ends – hastening Israeli society’s slide towards extremism, even outright fascism – while obstructing and excluding any rational voice calling for moderation or restraint, let alone a political resolution with the Palestinian people and their legitimate representatives.
Despite more than a year and a half having passed since the beginning of the current Israeli onslaught against the population of the Gaza Strip, in the wake of Hamas’ attack on 7 October 2023, the Tel Aviv regime continues with its campaign of genocide and inflicted starvation, as well as the brutal forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements there, all played out on television screens before the eyes of the world and under the nose of the international community.
Meanwhile, the so-called “leader of the free world” seemingly gives Israel a carte blanche to continue with its wanton carnage and ethnic cleansing, buffering it from any meaningful censure or sanction, at the same time as projecting grotesque visions of a Middle Eastern “Atlantic City” built on the skulls and corpses of Palestinian children.
Thus, against this horrendous backdrop, Israel is preparing to implement the most bloody and heinous phase in its war of extermination against the people of Gaza, to empty-out and then occupy the territory’s population centres and inflict a calculated campaign of mass murder against those civilians who remain – under the guise of “rooting out” and “eliminating” an already largely-defeated Hamas – as entailed by plans agreed with the Trump administration for the permanent displacement of the Gazans under the false slogan of “voluntary migration”.
This catastrophe, the new Nakba, takes place amid the deafening silence on the part of the Arab, regional, and wider international community – other than mere utterances of and references to the need to uphold international law and resolutions. This despite Israel having never respected any such charter, law, resolution, or treaty since its very inception – nor having been materially brought to account for its many egregious and flagrant violations of them. No, the message to the state of Israel has essentially remained unchanged… That it may do its worst, unimpeded!
However, owing to the mounting pressure of ordinary public opinion in a number of Western countries, not least in Europe, there has been a perceptible change in tone of the debate vis-à-vis Israel – and in turn a shift in the positions and rhetoric adopted by some high officials in those countries. However, this has not yet proceeded to the point it effects any change on the part of Israel, compelling a halt to the genocide or the material provision of humanitarian aid to avert a famine in Gaza. Instead, aid implementation mechanisms have been devised that exclude responsible international organisations, furnish private US corporations to reap a profit at the expense of the lives of Gazan children, and that ultimately accord with Israel’s aim of ethnically cleansing the territory… Indeed, several humanitarian agencies of international repute have refused to partake in these mechanisms for precisely this reason.
While a body of opinion optimistically, or rather naively, hedged their bets on Trump’s self-touted nous as regards the “art of the deal” – as well as his desire to secure an agreement to which he can stamp his name and brand – to reach a breakthrough and bring about an end to the onslaught during his recent visit to the region, these hopes proved to be in vain. Trump’s primary concern was the trillions he would raise in trade agreements, while the leaders of the countries he visited seemingly fell over themselves to bow to their imperial master rather than trouble themselves with issues pertaining to human dignity and lives, sovereignty, and the stability of the region.
Despite some initial optimism regarding the negotiations between the Trump administration and the Islamic Republic of Iran on the latter’s nuclear program, the threat of an outbreak of war continues to loom amid renewed threats by Israel to launch an attack on Iran… Something that could simply not take place without the US’ green lighting and participation. Suffice to state that such a scenario would upend all calculations as well as expose all countries and peoples of the Middle East to a major catastrophe, fallout, and lasting instability – the likes of which do not bear contemplation.
In the occupied West Bank, the situation is becoming ever more volatile by the day, as the Tel Aviv regime exploits the continuing fallout and instability from Gaza to wreak havoc through its occupying army laying siege to refugee camps, villages, towns and cities and enclosing them behind iron gates – the number of which has reached more than 900.
Regular violent incursions have resulted in the killings of hundreds of Palestinians in their own homes and neighbourhoods, as well as the displacement of many more – people who are already refugees.
Meanwhile, armed extremist settlers are given free rein to attack Palestinians, their homes, and properties in furtherance of Israel’s wholly illegal colonisation of Palestinian territory. None of this is remotely hidden or obscured from the attention of the international community – it is in the open for all to see.
This continued and unrestrained creation of facts on the ground renders a solution based on international law and legitimacy increasingly unattainable. Israel is effectively killing the two-state solution – one accepted by the vast majority of UN General Assembly member states that observe and seek to uphold international law and the supposed rules-based order.
While the prevailing backdrop seems to be one of unrelenting bleakness at present – and one that understandably portends fatigue as well as a sense of despair among progressives – a glimmer of hope is represented by the ongoing popular and principled solidarity campaigns with the Palestinian people and against war, genocide, and starvation. And in recognising this, the international progressive movement must redouble in its efforts and resolve… For eventually they will bear fruit in the influencing of the powers that be in the Western countries that a continuation of the current situation is neither tenable nor in their material interests and that Israel must be accordingly reined in.
The bleak alternative is one of continuing grave and existential danger for all peoples of the long-volatile Middle East, including the people of Israel itself. The state of Israel and its backers cannot hope to sustain this approach into the longer term. Neither will the courageous struggling peoples of the region be cowed in the face of continuing occupation, injustice, and menace indefinitely.
Dr Aqel Taqaz is co-ordinator for international relations of the Palestinian People’s Party and a member of the secretariat of the World Peace Council.
A shorter version of this article first appeared in Liberation journal.
Photo: Palestinian car set on fire by Israeli settlers 14 April 2024, Jordan Valley/ Wikimedia Commons
The views expressed in the articles published on this website do not necessarily represent those of Liberation
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