The Hamas attacks of October 7 upon the Re'im music festival and nearby kibbutzim killed over 1,300 Israeli civilians, mostly inside their own homes. For Israelis, this death toll was especially horrifying because it happened on an unprecedentedly large scale.
By itself the murder of 260 unarmed festival goers was the deadliest ever attack by violent Islamists against people at a music event anywhere in the world and the worst single massacre of Israeli civilians.
For a state based on providing a safe homeland for Jewish people and known for its military might and security, this large-scale loss of life accompanied by hundreds of other murders, kidnappings, and rapes on one single day was profoundly shocking.
It is simple to understand why Israelis quickly agreed Hamas’s fighters had acted like suicide bombers and war should be waged on them to free hostages and kill the attackers and their commanders. It is also simple to understand why Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere were immediately fearful. Palestinian casualties at the hands of Israeli forces have always been higher than the other way round.
On October 23, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced the total number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes following October 7, had passed 5,000. In just two weeks, the total number of deaths for both Israelis and Palestinians had exceeded their respective numbers during the entire four and a half years of the Second Intifada (2000-2005).
Humanitarian principles are what should matter most to those of us who are not Jewish, Palestinian, or from southern Lebanon. Only those peoples are entitled to “pick teams” and endlessly dissect each other’s conflicting narratives, as ultimately it is they who must make and live the peace.
As a former trustee for UK charities involved in supporting ordinary Palestinians, I am conscious that statistics mask the awful reality of lives afflicted by violence. The 2022 film Eleven days in May, directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mohamed Sawwaf, which displays the photographs and schoolbooks of children killed in Gaza during a recent but now forgotten short bombing campaign, provides a harrowing glimpse into the grief caused by the loss of each individual life.
It is now 30 years since Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accord confirming the recognition of Israel by the PLO and the latter as the representative of the Palestinian people for bilateral negotiations to bring about a permanent peace.
Although many Palestinians including Edward Said criticized this as inadequate -- which time shows it has been -- and Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli extremist for signing the treaty, it was still at the time an advance of sorts.
But that was then. The right-wing coalitions that have enabled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dominate Israel’s politics ever since, have consistently adopted ever more divisive policies within Israel and harsher attitudes towards Palestinians.
They have also expanded Israeli settlements on the West Bank, making a two-state solution potentially less tenable. To the limited extent, the two largest Palestinian political parties have been allowed to govern, Fatah and Hamas have largely been ineffective in improving life for ordinary people.
It goes without saying Israel has the firepower to achieve the stated aim of its new unity government to uproot Hamas from Gaza, but assuming this happens (and the call after October 7 by Likud Knesset member, Ariel Kallner “for a second Nakba” remains mere hyperbole) the key question remains the same as 30 years ago. What next?
Two peoples with claims over one small land area. Nearly 15 million people live in Israel/Palestine; nine and a half million inside Israel and about five million in the West Bank and Gaza. As Israel has two million citizens of Palestinian heritage, this means roughly half the area’s population is Jewish and half Palestinian. Definitions and estimates vary widely, especially on how to treat those of mixed heritage, but close to half the world’s Jews live in the region as do half the world’s Palestinians.
This symmetry breaks down when you note Israel’s per capita GDP is $52,000, over 15 times that of the West Bank and Gaza. Inequality is intrinsic to this conflict. But whilst it seems too late (except symbolically) to compensate the Palestinian refugees of 1948, it is certainly practical and in everyone’s long-term interest to improve living standards for Palestinian people today.
A two-state solution based on pre-1967 boundaries is the obvious way to secure both a Palestinian state and guarantee a Jewish majority for Israel, but after all these years there is little sign of this happening. Peaceful co-existence with a shared economy in a de facto one state reality, but described as separate states or binational entities, might prove more practical to implement.
Or some other variation of the above. So long as it brings peace with equal rights and freedoms, in time it will surely become less important to the people living there which flags others are waving?
As you may gather, I do not believe Israel/Palestine is impossible to resolve and think the world has other often bigger conflicts and problems it needs to address.
In population size and predicament, the peoples of Israel/Palestine have more in common than many realize. The path to peace is not helped by those who want them to think they are competing in a wider, more all-consuming clash of civilizations.
As a Londoner, I have been disturbed to witness how discussion of these issues has been weaponized in ongoing (largely online) culture wars which demonize Muslims and sow distrust and fear between different communities in Britain.
In the age of social media, it only takes a few idiots defacing posters of Israeli hostages or shouting jihadist slogans, for all people expressing humanitarian concerns for Palestinians, to easily become tainted. In the backwash of all this, reports of antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents have skyrocketed since October 7.
With this in mind, and to show empathy for victims on all sides, I attended a discussion panel at a Jewish cultural centre by some well-known writers about all the above issues. While there was little new to say or hear, it was a respectful discussion highlighting the shock and sorrow recent events have wrought.
On the way out, the person next to me plaintively expressed their thoughts aloud, which matched my own view. Why don’t they just get along?
Niaz Alam is Dhaka Tribune’s London Bureau Chief.
