Looking back at the atrocities committed during the latest Israeli war against Gaza, one cannot understand why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to launch this war. This is the third war in six years, and one wonders when it is going to end and what else it takes for the world to officially accept the eventual birth of a State of Palestine? After almost two months of continuous bombardment nothing, in political or military terms, has been achieved. Despite the large number of Palestinians killed and the huge destruction, Palestinian determination is stronger. There is a general agreement even among Israeli opinion makers that this war did to Netanyahu quite the opposite of what he claimed to have achieved.
Israeli policy towards the occupied West Bank and Gaza radicalises the Palestinians. Just think of Palestinian children in Gaza who were six years old when they lived through horrors of 2008-09 war (Operation Cast Lead) launched by the Israeli Army. The same children, four years later, also saw another Israeli war (Operation Pillar of Defence) in 2012. And when they just hit their teens, those children were deeply traumatised by the latest Israeli war against Gazans (Operation Protective Edge), which killed 2,140 Palestinians of which the vast majority were civilians. The Palestinians responded by using locally made primitive rockets that resulted in killing 73 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
With three wars in six years therefore, it is not unlikely that some of these children, having seen the indiscriminate devastation of their homes and neighbourhood, will possibly turn into potential suicide bombers in a sign of desperation. With a population rapidly growing at a high rate, the land-locked strip has become “the most miserable place to live in”, the UN Refugees and Works Agency (UNRWA) says. Gaza’s estimated population is almost 1.9 million with nearly 45 per cent under 15 years of age.
To make a bad situation worse, Israel’s government approved, almost immediately after the guns fell silent in Gaza, the building of 2,600 homes for new Jewish colonists in occupied East Jerusalem. This arrogant decision caused deep concerns even to the closest ally to Israel, the US. President Barack Obama gave Netanyahu a dressing down when the two men recently met in the White House. Obama openly raised the issue and warned of moving forward (with building colonies) in “a sensitive area”. It is well known that all Jewish colonies in Occupied Territories are illegal under international law. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Israel was sending a “very troubling message” with the colony project, and bluntly said such step contradicts Israel’s stated policy of negotiating final status agreement with the Palestinians. “This development will only draw condemnation from the international community, and distance Israel from even its closest allies.”
War crimes
On his part, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, has also accused Israel of waging a “war of genocide” in Gaza and vowed in his speech at the UN General Assembly last month to pursue its leaders for war crimes. The war against Gaza, he said, “was a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world”, citing the destruction left behind and the killing of more than 460 children. The world must recognise that the recent announcement by the Israeli government to expropriate another 1,000 acres of the occupied West Bank must mean only one thing: Israel keeps lying about its commitments to peace.
This year’s schedule of various UN agencies, including the UN General Assembly, has been overwhelmed by the turmoil in both Syria and Iraq and the worrying threats by Daesh (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). These events may overshadow the issue of Palestine, but it is wrong to neglect it. And because the prospects of finding a way out of this impasse are very bleak in deed, this is the time that leaders need to find new ways to move on. Let us remember how Israel was born and internationally accepted as a state back in 1950. It was Britain that was leading the world move to recognise Israel. Why doesn’t Britain repeat this leading initiative by declaring its recognition of the newly born state of Palestine?
The combination of both the illegal continuation of Israeli colonies in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank and the brutal closure of Gaza, must stop immediately. And since there is no way to do this by force, it seems the path of international recognition of Palestine as a state could definitely be the way forward. The UK is uniquely positioned to take the lead by recognising Palestine without any hesitation, just as UK recognised Israel in 1950. Why the UK, you may ask? Former British Consul-General in Israel (2010-2014), Vincent Fean, has recently provided this answer. “Where Britain leads, Europe will follow. We are party to the history of this conflict — originators of the Balfour Declaration and holders of the Mandate for Palestine between 1920 and 1948, under which we took on a ‘sacred trust of civilisation’ to advance the welfare of the Palestinian people and guide them to independence.”
Mustapha Karkouti is a former president of the Foreign Press Association, London.
