As the last day of my hiatus from work, I couldnt help but share with you the issues surrounding the Gaza War.
I have been reading a lot of articles regarding the Arab - Israeli conflict that has spanned for centuries. So far, everything has been a chicken - egg situation. Who started what? who is right? is war necessary? why all this fight?
Aside from the fact (or to others, fiction) that it has been biblical pre 21st century, the 1900s has offered a ‘factual’ basis on the conflict. I will try very hard not to bore you, I have tried my best to summarize the events to hopefully give light to the ongoing conflict.
* ‘my’ understanding on the war pre 21st century. Israel / Jews were ‘cursed’ due to disobedience to God. From the splitting of kingdoms from the time post Solomon rule as a result of Solomon’s idol worship to the bitterness against their race post crucifixion of the Christ - the most atrocious of which was the Holocaust. Per Quran, Holy Land is mentioned at least seven times, once when Moses proclaims to the Children of Israel “O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.” (Surah 5:21) - Here even the Muslims recognize that the Holy Land should be for the Israelites. In short, to the ‘younger’ brother. Note that it was believed that the Palestinians / Arabs are under the line of Abraham’s eldest son Ishmael and the Israelites / Jews are believed to be Isaac’s descendants of which God has favored. As to the ‘turning back ignominiously’, whatever that means, maybe that was what the Arabs are holding on to since the younger and highly favored one is so stubborn and disobedient thus undeserving while the older brother always upheld God’s laws.
* The Brits during WWI defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in 1917 and occupied Palestine and Syria. The land was under British military administration for the remainder of the war - It is beyond Israel so Israel didnt give a care as I believe it didnt have to since it was between Brits and Palestines for a time.
* After World War II, the British government abandoned its mandate in Palestine. UN took over and recommended a ‘partition plan’ resulting in an Arab - Jewish state: A ‘live and let live’ policy.
* After the war in 1948, the mandate ended up being split between Israel, Egypt and Jordan. Israel and Jordan annexed all areas under their administration (occupied Palestinian territories in Israel); Egypt maintained a military occupation of Gaza. In short, Israel agreed and compensated with little land left to them.
* Arabs refused Israel’s sovereignty until 1979 rejecting Israel’s desire to exist.
* Israel subsequently annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan, asserting that the West Bank and Gaza were “disputed territories”. The way I see it, Israel relented by issuing Palestinian occupied land as a ‘disputed territory’
* As a result, Arab residents on the ‘disputed territory’ became refugees. This did not do well with the Arabs.
* 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a ‘peace treaty’ leaving Gaza for peace negotations between Palestinians and Israel.
* In 1988, the Palestinian Liberation Organization declared “the formation of an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital. *this came for the fact that Palestine did not recognize Israel.
* In 1993, the PLO and Israel agreed that Palestines shall establish ’self rule’. In short, Israel would not meddle in the Palestine occupied territories. Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty afterwards.
* No other Arab state has granted legal recognition of Israel’s sovereignty.
* Several attempts at finalizing the terms for a peace agreement between Israel and the PLO have failed. In 2006 the Palestinians elected Hamas into power, a party that does not recognize Israel as legitimate.
* Israel pointed their side of the story, and the Arabs did as well, after tumultous debates over who’s is whose, Egypt, Israel and Jordan has resovled international borders, the dispute has now shifted to the confilct between Palestinians and Israel.
* Palestinian groups want a sovereign Palestinian state and removing the term. refugees to Palestinians in their ‘occupied territory’.
* International law is complicated by the fact that Israel is a sovereign state and PLO though acts and is recognized as representatives of the Palestinian people is not considered as a sovereign state, therefore has no legal rights whatsoever.
* This angered the Palestinians / Arabs further, thus the birth of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollas which is patriotic to their native land but is considered a terrorist by all others.
* Israel, when provoked only asserts their their sovereign right to self defense as justification for assinations for enemy leaders.
* Previously Israel did not build walls between territories, thus, prompting so called ‘refugees’ to mass transfer to Israelite territories thus leaving Israel vulnerable.
* Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that such massive deportations are prohibited regardless of motive, thus prompted Israel to put up walls as ‘barriers’ not just against Palestinian expansion but also to minimize threats of such.
* Critics against said barriers including the left winged media and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stated that Israel has no right to do so because it separates Palestinians from their means of livelihood and from interaction with others comparing it to the apartheid regime in South Africa. This has made Palestinians poorer.
* Israel defended itself by stating that the barrier is solely for security reasons and the land disputed is not subject to Geneva Conventions and even if it were, it explicitly allows structures to be built for purposes of self-defense.
StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, defends the security fence by pointing out:
* Israel did not begin building the fence until 2003, when terrorism reached unprecedented levels.
* The fence is similar to barriers that dozens of other democracies have built to keep out terrorists or illegal immigrants, such as the barriers between the United States and Mexico, India and Kashmir, Spain and Morocco, North and South Korea and even the walls within Belfast that separate Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods.
* Since construction of the fence began in 2003, the number of completed terrorist attacks has dropped by more than 90%.
* As of date, Israel did not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICJ on this matter, stating that the ICJ had no standing to hear the case in the first place, so its determinations are rendered void and irrelevant.
* Ceasefire and peacetalks ended December 19 when Hamas fired rockets on the Israel town of Siderot. Benjamin Netanyahu the leader of the right winged ‘Likud Party’ stated ‘Right now we have to go from passive response to active assualt’.
…Thus prompting the war on Gaza
I have been typing and researching for more than three hours. All I have to say is that there is no ‘end’ to this turmoil until crows turned white. I hope this article has helped you in some - if not all of your questions.
~signing off~
