The whole world community has seriously watched the nature, contents and the outcome of the peace talks held in Washington, Sharm al-Shaikh and Jerusalem in the month of September but it seems to be highly disappointed with the status-quo maintained by the US and its closest ally, Israel. Palestinians in particular are not hopeful of any solution till the US takes a historic and judicious stand on this issue. It would be reasonable and pragmatic to mention that solution of the Palestinian problem lies in applying the ‘realist method’ which justifies the use of force and strength for seeking peace.
The US is interested neither in enforcing any solution nor in a negotiated settlement for the simple reason that Israel rejects both the options. The US used veto 36 times only for providing immunity for Israel against the legal confinement of the UN Security Council Resolutions. In January 2009, it blocked a UN Security Council statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza where Israel bombed this area for over 22 days continuously. The US diplomat at the UN said: “We don’t want a ceasefire yet. There is not enough dead people yet. We want more dead people before we will call for a ceasefire.”
The US neither endorsed the United Nations fact-finding mission’s 575-page report under Judge Richard Goldstone nor condemned the Israeli attack on Freedom Flotilla in non-Israeli waters in May 2010. The US has spent over $ one trillion on recent war in West Asia and this expenditure resulted in the deaths of 5000 American soldiers and 2 million Iraqis with millions displaced Iraqis. In the case of the Palestinians, the US has been pretending to be a sincere and honest broker of peace but the kind of the US involvement itself is damaging for the enslaved people of Occupied Territories. This hypothesis can be verified by going into the following narratives and concerns shown from time to time by the US.
The concept of ‘two state solution’ is deceptive in nature and manifestation. It seems to be a situation when there was no Israel before 1948. Two states solution also looks like the fragmentation of a federation or confederation. Most fundamental question in this respect is who will give the State to the Palestinians – Israel or America or the Quartet?
The US has so far shown very clearly that in real sense this prerogative rests with Israel. Another question that emanates from here is: can Israel do so justiciably? It looks like a tyrant himself is given the power of being a judge as the US has repeatedly pressed the Palestinian National Authority to make ‘historic and painful compromises’. The US involvement shows that it is Israeli-Palestinian conflict which again is a misleading concept. The issue is basically the case for the end of Israeli occupation of Palestinians. The US and the world community need to keep this fact as a fundamental consideration.
In the recent US initiated peace talks (September 2) in Washington between Abbas and Netanyahu after the gap of 20 months, both the parties could not reach any compromise on the Final Status Talk but agreed to meet again on September 14. On the day of the talk in Washington, the news of the killings of four illegal settlers rocked the whole world with the painting of a violent image of Palestinians. In fact, the Occupied Territories are the battlefield for Israel, which is committing crimes against humanity and peace almost every day.
Perhaps we have forgotten that during the Annapolis of November 2007, Israel had killed several Palestinians. This time the world crying over the death of four should also see the report of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ (PCHR) Weekly Reports that just a week ago (during 12-25 August 2010) Israel killed three Palestinians, arrested 34, including 5 children and 5 foreign human rights defenders and injured a child. It continued to fire at Palestinian farmers and workers in Gaza, wounding a worker. It expanded the buffer zone in Northern Gaza and bombarded civilian facilities. It conducted 35 military incursions. Settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. It decided to establish 23 buildings in 8 settlements in the West Bank, and a new settlement to the east of Nablus. Israeli settlers uprooted 150 olive trees in Nablus. Many Palestinians and international human rights defenders suffered tear gas inhalation or sustained bruises during peaceful protests that witnessed arrest of a Norwegian activist. Israel demolished 3 houses. Israeli settlers stormed a house and set fire to a tract of agricultural land of the Palestinians.
On the very first day of the talks (14-15 September 2010), Israeli troops invaded parts of Northern Gaza and expanded the buffer zone by around 300 meters. One can look into the Reports of the PCHR for the period of 26 August-15 September 2010 which mentions the killings of 7 Palestinians by Israeli forces in addition to the wounding of 14 and arresting of 74 Palestinians for exercising their rights for justice. During this period, Israel made at least 120 military incursions into the Palestinian territories. It transformed 3 Palestinian houses into military sites in Hebron. There are other data about the cases of using tear gas shells by Israel and the use violence by the illegal Jewish settlers and attacks upon Palestinian farmers and workers. The US, Europe, their intelligentsia, and media have not shown any interest as they do in case of the death of one illegal settler in the West Bank.
It is also important to mention that the second round of peace talks on September 14 and 15 has not shown any developments towards achieving peace. Netanyahu, who has never even seriously talked about peace, has no intention of extending freeze over some settlements as other kinds of such activities are going on. Freezing of illegal settlements is not applicable in Eastern Jerusalem which has been causing great psychological, social, cultural and political turmoil due to Israeli acts of crimes. There is a major and very fundamental query at this juncture: Israeli negation over the issue of halting constructions of illegal settlements certainly indicates the Zionist mindset not to address the core issues of the Territory, Border, Refugees’ Rights to Return, Eastern Jerusalem as the capital of Palestinian State, removal of all illegal settlements in West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem and the elimination of illegal Israeli Wall created in Palestinian lands.
The Palestinians are occupied, enslaved and fortified. Israel is their self-imposed post-Colonial master. There is no equation factor between Israeli State and Palestinian National Authority. It is like a Rambo with bombs and guns in his hands on the one side and a weak and lame young man on the other. So the situation is not conducive to any type of settlement unless the mediator overpowers the Rambo or asks him to follow the command and not the request or smiles. This kind of US initiative is not a solution package but a part of public diplomacy to show its sincerity in settlement so that it could win more favours on the issue of Iran nuclear policy. The US has reiterated that it would encourage the peace partners and would not force any solution. The US rejected the massive protests in over 200 cities all over the world including the US to bomb Iraq to unseat its then President Saddam Hussein. Similarly, it unlawfully bombed Belgrade for Kosovo and imposed the Dayton Accord on Bosnians. It also attacked Afghanistan and is waging a war for ‘liberating’ Afghan people from Talibans. Why can’t the US adopt the same method of using military means and policy of economic sanctions against Israel to liberate Palestinian territories occupied on June 4, 1967 (22.5% of the whole Palestine) to which the whole world has agreed on several occasions.
Another fault with the US policymakers is their ignorance about the falsehood of Israeli security concerns which is meant for justifying the Israeli expansion of illegal occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank through creating 721 kms long Israeli Wall, unlawful settlements of foreign Jews in West Bank, security zones, buffer zones and over 100 outposts. Such illegalities of usurpation further reduce Palestinian territories to 10 to 12 per cent of the whole Palestine. They are inextricably linked with the core issues of territory, border and Jewish settlements. Few months ago, Israel snubbed the US over its request to Israel on the issue of settlement. This was the fact that prompted American scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Wault to criticise the US foreign policy endorsing the designs of the Israeli lobby in the US.
It is important to recall that the UN Security Council has passed resolutions for vacating territories occupied on and after June 4, 1967. The UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice have called settlements and Israeli Wall in West Bank illegal and unjustified. Similarly, the UN has approved the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their home in Israel which is rejected by the occupiers.
In this context, a majority of developing world and others have spoken in favour of liberating the Palestinians. It is a fact that after the Palestinians started talking peace after 1988 and more after 1991, Israel has engineered systematic and systemic losses to the Palestinians. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to the Oslo Accords for the purpose of getting a sovereign state in at least 22.5% of the land but since then Israel expanded its occupation of West Bank. Post 1991 expansions of Israeli occupation have thrown the Palestinians in a deep quagmire and the US has left them as on where basis.
Palestinians have systematically lost their lands, leaders and supporters like Iraq. Hamas, which won elections in January 2006, is under tremendous pressures and stigmatisation of terrorism. Gaza, where it rules, has been under severe economic and trade sanctions and suffered Israeli bombings for continuous 23 days with the loss of over 1400 people. Hamas was not invited to the Washington talks. Those who wanted to feed hungry Gazans in last May, were killed in High Seas and their ships captured. Hizbollah, which is mainly against Israeli occupation, was attacked in 2006. Now it is Iran which is the prime target of Israel and the US for raising genuine concerns over Israeli occupation and violation of Palestinians’ rights. Those who speak of justice within the PLO and Fatah are forced to be silent.
Therefore, Israel can be easily accused of committing crimes of aggression, war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace which need to be addressed. Unless and until the US and the world community seriously warn Israel of deserving harsh punishments and humanitarian interventions, Israel will not abstain from unlawful activities. Freedom of Palestinians thus requires concrete actions and not abstract initiatives on the table. So far the US has no roadmap for a viable Palestinian State. Israel is interested in more expansions and seeking more concessions from the enslaved people. Egypt and Jordan have no interests in addressing the core issues as they themselves are highly undemocratic. The Arab League and the Quartet seem to be highly optimists. It is in this vicious web of ‘ignorance’, the Palestinians are lonelier than ever. Dozens of their leaders have been killed and many in Israeli prisons. They are losing every day their people, properties, lands, homes, security, privacy and dignity. Palestinians have not lost their ‘will’ of resistance and protests and the UN resolutions, International Laws, International Morality and American love for liberty have become useless and meaningless for them. Therefore, it would not be unreasonable to say that inaction against Israel has exposed the nature of the contemporary world order and the nature of liberal democracies. It will be clearer at the podium of the UN General Assembly when the US would soon trump up on Iran to divert real issues in West Asia.
[Dr. Arshi Khan, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. He can be reached at: [email protected].]