As expected, the current front-runners in the American presidential elections, much as the leaders in Middle East, are obviously missing the boat as they voice their mediocre views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that started in 1948 when the British mandate ended.
An uglier Israeli step followed less than 10 years later when they managed to occupy the remaining portion of Palestine, known as the West Bank, where the Arab population is still hoping to establish their independent state.
The front-runner of the US Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, a well-known supporter of Israel, released an article in November last year titled: “How I Would Reaffirm Unbreakable Bond with Israel — and Benjamin Netanyahu.”
“I have stood with Israel my entire career,” she proclaimed in the article. Indeed, “as secretary of state [I] requested more assistance for Israel every year”. Moreover, she added: “I defended Israel from isolation and attacks in the United Nations and other international settings, including opposing the biased Goldstone report [which documented widespread Israeli war crimes in Gaza]”.
The Republican front-runner Donald Trump argued on a television programme that he wants to be “neutral” on Israel and Palestine. “You understand a lot of people have gone down in flames trying to make that deal. So I don’t want to say whose fault it is — I don’t think that helps.”
A case in point for Trump may be the report in Quds Net which revealed that Israeli authorities have so far issued more than 20,000 demolition orders since the start of the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem. Director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights, Ziad Al Hammouri, said: “The Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes is an old occupation policy, but the new think is mainly targeting the homes of Palestinians martyrs.”
He said he held the international community responsible since there are international resolutions that protect the Palestinians, but the Israeli occupation does not respect them, and is not held accountable. He added: “Anyone can observe the changes on the ground which aim to make [occupied] Jerusalem a capital of the Jewish community.”
Moreover, Human Rights Watch has recently revealed that there are 1,000 businesses, mainly manufacturing plants, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank operating in violation of international law because they were built on occupied land. Most of the businesses in the occupied West Bank are located in 16 industrial zones. They produces about $600 million (Dh2.2 billion) of goods annually — a small portion of Israel’s $300 billion economy.
Equally depressing for the Palestinians under Israeli occupation has been the case of a Palestinian journalist under arrest who has been on a hunger strike for 90 days, the longest such hunger strike in decades.
His doctor, Amani Dayif, who is associated with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), said that Mohammad Al Qiq, a 33-year-old physician is in “unknown territory” medically because of the length of his fast, and that this condition is rapidly deteriorating. His protest fast also surpasses the hunger strikes undertaken by Irish Republican Army prisoners in Northern Ireland during the 1981 protest strikes.
Al Qiq has been on hunger strike since November 25, 2015, in protest of his administrative detention, a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.
The father of two, who used to work for a Saudi Arabian television network, has been accused by Israel’s Shin Bet internal spy service of “terror activity” involving Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas. Al
Qiq denied the charges and began the hunger strike after facing torture during interrogation. Last Tuesday, the Israeli Supreme Court dismissed Al Qiq’s appeal to be transferred to a hospital in Ramallah, where the headquarters of the Palestinian National Authority is located, despite UN concern and his critical condition as described by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Meanwhile, Jordanian civil society groups protested last Sunday outside the United Nations headquarters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, demanding the release of the Palestinian prisoner, especially since Israel is not allowing his family to visit him or allow him to be treated in the West Bank.
The uproar over the Palestinian journalist under inhumane Israeli arrest coincided with the visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry who, regrettably, did not bring up the subject of Al Qiq.
Kerry’s failure to intercede in this horrifying case shocked many in Jordan and Palestine, especially because, since October 1, 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while 27 Israelis lost their lives as a result of attacks by Palestinian resistance groups.
Hopefully, Jordan’s King Abdullah’s statement that stressed “the need for the international community and the United States first, to end the stalemate in the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis to move towards a two-state solution” will have some resonance in Washington. The Middle East cannot wait until a new administration takes over.
