A BACKLASH created by the recent 50-day pounding of Gaza to near rubble by Israel is beginning to cause a political stir. The initial impetus came from Sweden’s recognition of the state of Palestine. This has snowballed into a European Union (EU) backing for a Palestinian state, at least in principle, under the pre-1967 borders, two-state solution. At the same time, the general court of the EU, the bloc’s second highest court, has asked for Hamas, the elected ruling authority of Gaza, to be removed from the terrorist groups list. If Israel’s perspective on this is turned on its head then, the decision based on a technicality can be viewed as an accompanying progress to a territorial problem set in motion in the post-World War 1 period.
The land always known as Palestine through the ages — that area between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan — had the great misfortune to come under British Mandate in 1922. Bestowed the power by the League of Nations, the British ushered in the partition of Palestine in 1947 under United Nations (UN) Resolution 181, which witnessed the division of the land between Jews and Arabs. By inference, that the Palestinians were here referred to in the generic is evidence of the doublespeak that was to characterise the exercise. Jews, persecuted by the Nazis during World War 2, came from all over Europe to displace the local population within boundaries called Israel to invoke a biblical connection hence, a “historical” justification. Meanwhile, the Palestinians, there for centuries, were forced to surrender their rights and many of them now form a global diaspora. Israel adamantly refuses them the right of return. On this unequal arrangement, achieved through external interference by an imperial power, albeit past its zenith, Zionism found a foothold. Today, the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv occupies whatever territory is left to the original population: the narrow strip called Gaza and the not very much larger West Bank that includes East Jerusalem. What is most appalling is that while Israel is militarily equipped — the only nuclear power in the Middle East — the Palestinians were militarily emasculated and their wars fought by the Arab League. The latter’s refusal to recognise Israel and its inability to walk its talk is much to blame for the betrayal of Palestine and its statelessness. So complete is the betrayal that today, Egypt acts in concert with Tel Aviv to imprison Gazans.
The unwillingness of Israel to accept a two-state settlement despite the Oslo Accord, and its Zionist ambition of absorbing all of Palestine through genocide and illegal settlements on Palestinian land, is what the EU decision intends to resolve. However, every progress made thus far has been undermined by Washington’s backing of Israeli intransigence. That the US opted not to attend the recent Geneva conference is a bad sign, especially if the EU’s political will falters.