One hundred and forty five countries officially recognize Palestine as a state; one whose borders aren’t defined, has governance that is practically non-existent, an economy that’s propped up by ill-defined, surreptitious aid duly taxed by Israel, and no structured army.
For all purposes the 2022 census figures put the population at a little over 5.5 million, with 1.8 million living in Israel without any real basic rights. The map of 1948 defining Palestinian land was very different.
Britain led the creation of the state of Israel in 1949 following a war and since then, the world looked away at a slow but deliberate expansion of the Jewish entity that has left the nomads being crowded into a ghetto-like existence along the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The third area, rich in vegetation and mineral resources, remains under Israeli control. Through the years, transcending numerous peace accords, there have been logical consequences of the expansion and trampling of human rights, the latest transgression being the savage October 7, 2023 attack by the militant Hamas group on Israel.
The response has been catastrophic. Close to 50,000 men, women and children dead and nearly double-maimed or injured is the result of nearly a year of a full-scale army and air force attack on people that have no similar fallback. Living conditions have been reduced to primitive conditions, including a starvation-like situation.
Nothing has worked with Israel. That single line “the right to defend itself” has left all protestations of human rights violations by the international community in sterile stagnation, including the ruling of the International Court of Justice and indeed, the United Nations Security Council.
That single line ‘the right to defend itself’ has left all protestations of human rights violations by the international community in sterile stagnation
It again exposes further the lame-duck persona of the United Nations and the Security Council that had previously swept under the carpet the abominable destruction of Iraq on the grounds of it possessing weapons of mass destruction that were never there. None of the Council Members of the time were ever held to task for misinforming the UN -- but that’s how politics play out.
Emotions fuelled by tradition and at times, religion have given birth to many nations contributing to a raison d'etre for tumultuous and forced change from the earliest documented history, mythological or reality-based through Roman times, Islamic adventurism, the Crusades, African tribalism, and the prospect of Zionist expansionism, Russia’s effort to regroup, and a Hindutva in line.
Particularly galling is the new trend of thought whereby post-war rebuilding comes to the fore before the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are over. Trillions of dollars will end up being committed for that purpose as gimlet eyes water over business prospects that are thrown up. That’s an effort to gloss over the incomprehensible contracts dished out after the Iraq-Kuwait war, the flattening of Iraq and the future prospect of rebuilding Syria and Yemen.
By the time Israel has achieved its neutralization of Hamas on its terms, there won’t be much of the habitation left. Its defense of the massive civilian casualties is in saying Hamas and Hezbollah, in Lebanon, force the population to let them hide behind them.
If that is so, there’s more a reason for Israel to look for other players out of conflict. If their supposition is wrong and the Gaza and Lebanese population allow them to be representative, Israel will have to decimate the entire population.
But that’s a supposition that says even the UN peacekeeping force is tacitly supporting Hezbollah. Quite a mouthful. The attacks on UNRWA and other aid agencies from Western nations have all been digested by her allies.
One supposes that this support extends to UN troops. Nothing could be beyond a state that has an unknown, unstated leverage over all its staunch allies so as to reveal their abject weakness of resolve.
Once stock-taking is done, matters may change -- though probably not in our lifetime. Perhaps one day there will be a Palestinian state with all the organs that any state has. A country without the original people and composed of settlers -- in probability of Jewish origins. And that could be expedited if Donald Trump reascends to the United States presidency.
Mahmudur Rahman is a writer, columnist, broadcaster and communications specialist.
