tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/west-bank-4608/articlesWest Bank – The Conversation2024-03-27T12:37:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259652024-03-27T12:37:57Z2024-03-27T12:37:57ZEaster 2024 in the Holy Land: a holiday marked by Palestinian Christian sorrow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584385/original/file-20240326-22-4jhbih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C51%2C5604%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus Christ.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansEaster/d33a91bd48b94dd7b7cae10a29bdeef0/photo?Query=%20Church%20of%20the%20Holy%20Sepulchre%20easter&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=901&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=29&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, Christians from across the world visit Jerusalem for Easter week, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/following-jesuss-steps-millions-christians-via-dolorosa-walking-wrong-way">walking the Via Dolorosa</a>, the path Jesus is said to have walked on the way to his crucifixion over 2,000 years ago. Easter is the holiest of days, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Holy-Sepulchre">Church of the Holy Sepulchre</a>, the site where Jesus is believed to have died, is one of the most sacred sites for Christians.</p>
<p>But not all Christians have equal access to these sites. If you are a Christian Palestinian living in the city of Bethlehem or Ramallah hoping to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem, you have to <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240325-israel-bans-palestinian-christians-from-jerusalem-on-palm-sunday/">request permission from Israeli authorities</a> well before Christmas – without guarantee that it will be granted. Those were the rules even before Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-latest-02-28-2024-5fb126981031984395a228598fa9e4a9">launched an attack on southern Israel</a>. The Israeli response to the Hamas attack has resulted in even more <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/11/middleeast/west-bank-restrictions-violence-intl-cmd/index.html">severe restrictions on freedom of movement</a> for Palestinians in the West Bank.</p>
<p>The site where the Bible says Jesus was born, in Bethlehem, and the place he died, in Jerusalem, are only about six miles apart. Google Maps indicates the drive takes about 20 minutes but carries a warning: “<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Church+of+the+Nativity,+P635%2BP2C,+Bethlehem+Territory/Church+of+the+Holy+Sepulchre,+Jerusalem/@31.7444436,35.1267403,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x1502d87be687c8f9:0xd060c37bd524261c!2m2!1d35.2075288!2d31.7043034!1m5!1m1!1s0x150329cf1c246db5:0x2d04a75cfc390360!2m2!1d35.2296002!2d31.7784813!3e0?entry=ttu">This route may cross country borders</a>.” That is because Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, which is under Israeli military occupation, whereas <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/22/how-does-israels-occupation-of-palestine-work#:%7E:text=Israel%20occupied%20the%20West%20Bank,were%20the%20capital%20of%20Israel">Jerusalem is under direct Israeli control</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/justicestudies/about-us/directory/abusaad-roni.php">human rights scholar</a> and Christian Palestinian who grew up in Bethlehem, I have many fond memories of Easter, which is a special time of gathering and celebration for Christian Palestinians. But I also saw firsthand how the military occupation has denied Palestinians basic human rights, including religious rights.</p>
<h2>A season of celebration</h2>
<p>Traditionally, Palestinian families and friends exchange visits, offering coffee, tea and a cookie stuffed with dates called “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/11/522771745/maamoul-an-ancient-cookie-that-ushers-in-easter-and-eid-in-the-middle-east">maamoul</a>,” which is made only at Easter. A favorite tradition, especially for children, is taking a colorfully dyed hard-boiled egg in one hand and cracking it against an egg held by a friend. The breaking of the egg symbolizes the rise of Jesus from the tomb, the end of sorrow and the ultimate defeat of death itself and purification of human sins.</p>
<p>For Orthodox Christians, one of the most sacred rites of the year is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Holy-Fire">Holy Fire</a>. On the day before Orthodox Easter, thousands of pilgrims and local Christian Palestinians of all denominations gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Greek and Armenian patriarchs enter the enclosure of the tomb in which Jesus was said to have been buried and pray inside. Those inside have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IpyPCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT285&lpg=PT285&dq=%22From+the+core+of+the+very+stone+on+which+Jesus+lay+an+indefinable+light+pours+forth.+It+usually+has+a+blue+tint,+but+the+color+may+change+and+take+many+different+hues.+It+cannot+be+described+in+human+terms.+The+light+rises+out+of+the+stone+as+mist+may+rise+out+of+a+lake+%E2%80%94+it+almost+looks+as+if+the+stone+is+covered+by+a+moist+cloud,+but+it+is+light.&source=bl&ots=l47MXGss14&sig=ACfU3U3c3GuHU35fJ_j6Uxpnf8zITGO9gA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiW4d74n5KFAxVGCTQIHUNrAgsQ6AF6BAhKEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false">reported</a> that a blue light rises from the stone where Jesus lay, and forms into a flame. The patriarch lights candles from the flame, passing the fire from candle to candle among the thousands assembled in the church. </p>
<p>That same day, delegations representing Eastern Orthodox countries carry the flame in lanterns to their home countries via <a href="https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/aircraft-fleet-brings-easter-holy-fire-to-orthodox-communities">chartered planes</a> to be presented in cathedrals in time for the Easter service. Palestinians also carry the flame using lanterns to homes and churches in the West Bank.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cMlvI5-Ah00?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Christians celebrate the Holy Fire under Israeli restrictions in 2023.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Deep roots in the Holy Land</h2>
<p>Palestinian Christians <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/Sociology-of-early-Palestinian-Christianity/oclc/3609025">trace their ancestry</a> to the time of Jesus and Christianity’s founding in the region. Many <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9781">churches and monasteries</a> flourished in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other Palestinian towns under Byzantine and Roman rule. Throughout this period and into the modern day, Christians, Muslims and Jews <a href="https://www.iis.ac.uk/learning-centre/scholarly-contributions/academic-articles/muslim-jews-and-christians-relations-and-interactions/">lived side by side in the region</a>. </p>
<p>With the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, the <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/decline-of-eastern-christianity-under-islam-from-jihad-to-dhimmitude-seventh-twentieth-century/oclc/33276531">majority of Christians gradually converted to Islam</a>. However, the remaining Christian minority persisted in practicing their religion and traditions, including through the rule of the Ottoman empire, from 1516 to 1922, and to the present day.</p>
<p>The establishment of Israel in 1948 led to the expulsion of <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=17079">750,000 Palestinians, over 80% of the population</a>, which is referred to by Palestinians as the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">nakba,” or the catastrophe</a>. Hundreds of thousands became refugees throughout the world, including many Christians.</p>
<p>Christians accounted for about <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-204267/">10% of the population in 1920</a> but <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/#people-and-society">constitute just 1% to 2.5%</a> of Palestinians in the West Bank as of 2024, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25112">because of emigration</a>. Christians in the West Bank belong to multiple denominations, including Greek Orthodox, Catholic and various Protestant denominations.</p>
<p>Thousands of Palestinians rely on the pilgrims and tourists who come to Bethlehem every year for their livelihoods. Two million people visit Bethlehem annually, and more than <a href="https://www.bethlehem-city.org/en/the-city-economy">20% of local workers are employed in tourism</a>. Another important local industry is carved olive wood handicrafts. In 2004, the mayor of Beit Jala, which borders the city of Bethlehem, estimated <a href="https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/Beth_Rep_Dec04.pdf">200 families in the area</a> made their living from carving olive wood. Christians around the world have <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/christmas-journey-olive-orchard-nativity-180326957.html">olive wood nativity sets</a> or crosses carved by Palestinian artisans, a tradition that has been passed down through generations.</p>
<h2>Impact of the occupation</h2>
<p>The neighborhoods of the occupied West Bank have been fragmented by the building of over 145 illegal Israeli settlements. Both Christian and Muslim Palestinians face huge barriers to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jsa.2019.0003">accessing holy sites in Jerusalem</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men wearing long green garbs walk in a procession and one in the center holds a tall crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Israeli policeman stands guard during a March 1997 procession of Franciscan monks led by traditionally dressed guards coming out of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MIDEASTJERUSALEMEASTER/95dacad9cce0da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=%20bethlehem%20holy%20week%20guards&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=733&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=0&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Peter Dejong</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bethlehem is encircled by several Jewish-only settlements, as well as the <a href="https://pij.org/articles/1042/the-impact-of-the-separation-wall-on-jerusalem">separation wall</a> built in the 2000s, which snakes around and across the city. Across the West Bank, over 500 checkpoints and bypass roads designed to connect settlements have been built on Palestinian lands for the exclusive use of settlers. As of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-02-02/israeli-settler-population-west-bank-surpasses-500000">Jan. 1, 2023</a>, there were over half a million settlers in the West Bank and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The highways and bypass roads cut through the middle of towns and separate families. It is a system that former <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2007.tb01647.x">President Jimmy Carter</a> and numerous human rights groups have described as “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-jerusalem-israel-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-83b44a2f6b2b3581d857f57fb6960115">apartheid</a>.” This system severely restricts freedom of movement and separates students from schools, patients from hospitals, farmers from their lands and worshipers from their churches or mosques. </p>
<p>Additionally, Palestinians have a different license plate color on their cars. They can’t use their vehicles to access <a href="https://apnews.com/article/a0c47ad493fb4b31a444bfe432194f2e">private roads</a>, which restricts their access to Jerusalem or Israel.</p>
<p>Going far beyond separate roads, Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to a separate legal system – a military judicial system – whereas Israeli settlers living in the West Bank have a civilian court system. This <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/">system</a> allows indefinite detention of Palestinians without charge or trial based on secret evidence. All of these restrictions on freedom of movement disrupt the ability of Palestinians of all faiths to visit holy sites and gather for religious observances.</p>
<h2>Prayers for peace</h2>
<p>The barriers to celebrating Easter, especially this year, are not just physical but emotional and spiritual. </p>
<p>As of March 25, 2024, the number of <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/health-ministry-in-hamas-run-gaza-says-war-death-toll-at-32-333-fd31aa61">Gazans killed in the war had surpassed 32,000</a> – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234159514/gaza-death-toll-30000-palestinians-israel-hamas-war">70% of them women and children</a>, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/22/israel-arrested-over-7350-west-bank-palestinians-since-war-on-gaza-began">arrested 7,350 people in the West Bank</a>, with over 9,000 currently in detention, up from 5,200 who were in Israeli prisons before Oct. 7, 2023. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/palestinian-christians-and-muslims-have-lived-together-in-the-region-for-centuries-and-several-were-killed-recently-while-sheltering-in-the-historic-church-of-saint-porphyrius-216335">Israel bombed the world’s third oldest church</a>, St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, in Gaza in October 2023, killing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/20/gaza-church-strike-saint-porphyrius/">18 of the more than 400 people</a> sheltering there.</p>
<p>Christian Palestinians in the West Bank <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/15/bethlehem-cancels-christmas-display-martyrs-israel-hamas/">suspended celebrations</a> for Christmas in 2023 in hopes of bringing more attention to the death and suffering in Gaza. But the situation has only worsened. An estimated <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unrwa-situation-report-82-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem-all-information-22-24-february-2024-valid-24-february-2024-2230-enar">1.7 million Gazans</a> – over 75% of the population – had been displaced as of March 2024, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/middleeast/famine-northern-gaza-starvation-ipc-report-intl-hnk/index.html">half of them on the verge of famine</a>.</p>
<p>Many Palestinians have long turned to their faith to endure the occupation and have found <a href="https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.70464">solace in prayer</a>. That faith has allowed many to hold on to the hope that the occupation will end and the Holy Land will be the place of peace and coexistence that it once was. Perhaps that is when, for many, Easter celebrations will be truly joyful again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roni Abusaad, PhD does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Christian Palestinian human rights scholar who grew up in Bethlehem writes about the special time of Easter, but also about the restrictions on Palestinian Christians.Roni Abusaad, PhD, Lecturer, San José State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259362024-03-25T12:38:41Z2024-03-25T12:38:41ZIsrael’s ‘Iron Wall’: A brief history of the ideology guiding Benjamin Netanyahu<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583238/original/file-20240320-16-lzg9fz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C3052%2C1932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of Khan Yunis in Gaza on Feb. 2, 2024, after weeks of continuous Israeli bombardment and bulldozing.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-destruction-with-destroyed-buildings-and-roads-news-photo/1973198679?adppopup=true">Abdulqader Sabbah/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that Israel’s military will soon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-rafah-offensive.html">launch an invasion of Rafah</a>, the city in the southern Gaza Strip. More than 1 million Palestinians, now on the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-malnutrition-famine-children-dying-israel-palestinians-2f938b1a82d7822c7da67cc162da1a37">verge of famine</a>, have sought refuge there from their bombed-out cities farther north. Despite U.S. President Joe <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-warns-netanyahu-an-assault-on-rafah-would-cross-red-line-c78677ba">Biden’s warning against the move</a>, Netanyahu appears, for now, undeterred from his aim to attack Rafah. </p>
<p>The attack is the latest chapter in Israel’s current battle to eliminate Hamas from Gaza. </p>
<p>But it’s also a reflection of an ideology, known as the “<a href="https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf">Iron Wall</a>,” that has been part of Israeli political history since before the state’s founding in 1948. The Iron Wall has driven Netanyahu in his career leading Israel for two decades, culminating in the current deadly war that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Israel-Hamas-War">began with a massacre of Israelis</a> and then turned into a <a href="https://hhi.harvard.edu/news/humanitarian-situation-gaza">humanitarian catastrophe for Gaza’s Palestinians</a>.</p>
<p>Here is the history of that ideology:</p>
<h2>A wall that can’t be breached</h2>
<p>In 1923, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Jabotinsky">Vladimir, later known as “Ze’ev,” Jabotinsky</a>, a prominent Zionist activist, published “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/quot-the-iron-wall-quot">On the Iron Wall</a>,” an article in which he laid out his vision for the course that the Zionist movement should follow in order to realize its ultimate goal: the creation of an independent Jewish state in Palestine, <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-for-the-history-of-judaism#brits2">at the time governed by the British</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a double breasted suit, wearing round glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vladimir ‘Ze'ev’ Jabotinsky, in Prague in 1933.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1176800">United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of L. Elly Gotz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jabotinsky admonished the Zionist establishment for ignoring the Arab majority in Palestine and their political desires. He asserted the Zionist establishment held a fanciful belief that the technological progress and improved economic conditions that the Jews would supposedly bring to Palestine would endear them to the local Arab population. </p>
<p>Jabotinsky thought that belief was fundamentally wrong. </p>
<p>To Jabotinsky, the Arabs of Palestine, like any native population throughout history, would never accept another people’s national aspirations in their own homeland. Jabotinsky believed that Zionism, as a Jewish national movement, would have to combat the Arab national movement for control of the land. </p>
<p>“Every native population in the world resists colonists as
long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonised,” <a href="https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf">he wrote</a>. </p>
<p>Jabotinsky believed the Zionist movement should not waste its resources on Utopian economic and social dreams. Zionism’s sole focus should be on developing Jewish military force, a metaphorical Iron Wall, that would compel the Arabs to accept a Jewish state on their native land. </p>
<p>“Zionist colonisation … can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach,” <a href="https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf">he wrote</a>.</p>
<h2>Jabotinsky’s heirs: Likud</h2>
<p>In 1925, Jabotinsky founded the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/revisionist-zionism">Revisionist movement</a>, which would become the chief right-wing opposition party to the dominant Labor Party in the Zionist movement. It opposed Labor’s socialist economic vision and emphasized the focus on <a href="https://www.knesset.gov.il/vip/jabotinsky/eng/Revisionist_frame_eng.html">cultivating Jewish militarism</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Pages/1947%20UN%20Partition%20Plan.aspx">In 1947, David Ben Gurion and the Zionist establishment</a> <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-202101/">accepted partition plans</a> devised by the United Nations for Palestine, dividing it into independent Jewish and Palestinian Arab states. The Zionists’ goal in accepting the plan: to have the Jewish state founded on the basis of such international consensus and support. </p>
<p>Jabotinsky’s Revisionists opposed any territorial compromise, which meant they opposed any partition plan. They objected to the recognition of a non-Jewish political entity – an Arab state – within Palestine’s borders. </p>
<p>The Palestinian Arab state proposed by the U.N. partition plan <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations-Resolution-181">was rejected by Arab leaders</a>, and it <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/history/">never came into being</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.gov.il/en/departments/general/declaration-of-establishment-state-of-israel">1948, Israel declared its independence</a>, which sparked <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war">a regional war between Israel and its Arab neighbors</a>. During the war, which began immediately after the U.N. voted for partition and lasted until 1949, more than half the Palestinian residents of the land Israel claimed were expelled or fled. </p>
<p>At the war’s end, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Partition-of-Palestine">the historic territory of Palestine was divided</a>, with about 80% claimed and governed by the new country of Israel. Jordan controlled East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>In the new Israeli parliament, Jabotinsky’s heirs – <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/herut-movement">in a party first called Herut</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Likud">and later Likud</a> – were relegated to the opposition benches.</p>
<h2>Old threat, new threat</h2>
<p>In 1967, another war broke out between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Syria and Jordan. It resulted <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/arab-israeli-war-1967">in Israel’s occupation of</a> East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39960461">Yitzhak Rabin led Israel’s military</a> during that war, called the Six-Day War.</p>
<p>From 1948 until 1977, the more leftist-leaning <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Israel-Labour-Party">Labor Party governed Israel</a>. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Menachem-Begin">In 1977, Menachem Begin led the Likud to victory</a> and established it as the dominant force in Israeli politics. </p>
<p>However in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/24/world/israel-s-labor-party-wins-clear-victory-in-election-ready-to-form-a-coalition.html">1992, Rabin, as the leader of Labor, was elected as prime minister</a>. With Israel emerging as both a military and economic force in those years, fueled by the new high-tech sector, he believed the country was <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/what-would-rabin-do">no longer facing the threat of destruction</a> from its neighbors. To Rabin, the younger generation of Israelis wanted to integrate into the global economy. <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1994/rabin/facts/">Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict</a>, he believed, would help Israel integrate into the global order. </p>
<p>In 1993, Rabin negotiated <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo">the Oslo Accords</a>, a peace deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The two men <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/08/06/488737544/oslo-tells-the-surprising-story-behind-a-historic-handshake">shook hands</a> in a symbol of the reconciliation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The agreement created a Palestinian authority in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as part of the pathway to the long-term goal of creating two countries, Israel and a Palestinian state, that would peacefully coexist.</p>
<p>That same year, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benjamin-Netanyahu">Benjamin Netanyahu had become the leader of the Likud</a> Party. The son of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/world/middleeast/benzion-netanyahu-dies-at-102.html">a prominent historian of Spanish Jewry</a>, he viewed Jewish history as facing <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2012-04-30/ty-article/benzion-netanyahu-father-of-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-dies-at-102/0000017f-e958-d639-af7f-e9df59c90000">a repeating cycle of attempted destruction</a> – from the Romans to the Spanish Inquisition, the Nazis and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-07-05/ty-article/when-netanyahus-father-adopted-the-view-of-arabs-as-savages/0000017f-e00a-d3ff-a7ff-f1aa22770000">the Arab world</a>. </p>
<p>Netanyahu saw the Oslo peace process as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oslo/interviews/netanyahu.html">the sort of territorial compromise</a> Jabotinsky had warned about. To him, compromise would only invite conflict, and any show of weakness would spell doom. </p>
<p>The only answer to such a significant threat, Netanyahu has repeatedly argued, is <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-no-full-palestinian-state-no-surrender-in-exchange-for-gaza-hostages/">a strong Jewish state that refuses any compromises</a>, always identifying the mortal threat to the Jewish people and countering it with an <a href="https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/no-compromise-on-rafah-operation-israeli-pm-vows-to-continue-fight-despite-global-appeals/articleshow/107792076.cms">overwhelming show of force</a>. </p>
<h2>No territorial compromise</h2>
<p>Since the 1990s, Netanyahu’s primary focus has not been on the threat of the Palestinians, but rather that of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/netanyahu-at-war/transcript/">Iran and its nuclear ambitions</a>. But he has continued to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/21/1225883757/israels-netanyahu-rejects-any-palestinian-sovereignty-post-war-rebuffing-biden">say there can be no territorial compromise</a> with the Palestinians. Just as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/22/netanyahu-biden-two-state-solution-palestine-river-to-sea/">Palestinians refuse to accept Israel as a Jewish state</a>, Netanyahu <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68025945">refuses to accept the idea of a Palestinian state</a>.</p>
<p>Netanyahu believed that only through strength would the Palestinians accept Israel, a process that would be <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/22/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-cnn-interview-intl/index.html">aided if more and more Arab states normalized relations with Israel</a>, establishing diplomatic and other ties. That normalization reached new heights with the 2020 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Abraham-Accords">Abraham Accords</a>, the bilateral agreements signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain. These agreements were the ultimate vindication of Netanyahu’s regional vision.</p>
<p>It should not be surprising, then, that Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, took place just as Saudi Arabia was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/un-israel-netanyahu-politics-4d07d9fd0413c6893d1ddfb944919ae0">nearing normalization of relations</a> with Israel. In a twisted manner, when the Saudis subsequently backed off the normalization plans, the attack reaffirmed Netanyahu’s broader vision: The Palestinian group that vowed to never recognize Israel <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-07/saudi-says-no-ties-with-israel-unless-gaza-aggression-halted">made sure that Arab recognition of Israel would fail</a>. </p>
<p>The Hamas attack gave Netanyahu an opportunity to reassert Israel’s – and Jabotinsky’s – Iron Wall. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/12/israel-gaza-hamas-biden-netanyahu/">The massive and wantonly destructive war that Netanyahu has led</a> against Hamas and Gaza since that date is the Iron Wall in its most elemental manifestation: unleashing overwhelming force as a signal that no territorial compromise with the Arabs over historical Palestine is possible. Or, as Netanyahu has repeatedly said in recent weeks, there will be no ceasefire until there’s a complete Israeli victory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eran Kaplan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The destructive force that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed in Gaza is rooted in a century-old ideology that says overwhelming power is how Israel should deal with Palestinians.Eran Kaplan, Rhoda and Richard Goldman Chair in Jewish Studies, San Francisco State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2253672024-03-12T14:39:29Z2024-03-12T14:39:29ZIsrael-Hamas conflict: Ramadan brings fresh fears of escalation on both Gaza Strip and West Bank<p>Ramadan has begun, but the 2 million or so inhabitants of the Gaza Strip will have little choice about whether they can observe the customary daylight fasting during the month-long festival. The continuing blockade of the 141 square mile enclave has reportedly reduced some people to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68239320">eating cattle feed</a>, and there remains the dire prospect of <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146997">widespread famine</a> if there isn’t a massive and rapid increase in the volume of aid getting to people.</p>
<p>A sea corridor <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/12/first-aid-ship-to-gaza-leaves-cyprus-port">has been opened</a> between Cyprus and Gaza and the first shipments of aid are arriving from Europe. But it’s thought that it <a href="https://theconversation.com/joe-bidens-plan-to-build-a-pier-to-get-aid-into-gaza-isnt-enough-here-are-six-issues-needed-for-an-effective-aid-strategy-225369">will be difficult</a> to get a sufficient amount of food, fuel and medicine in by sea.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, negotiations between Israel and Hamas have come to a grinding halt. Both sides have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-chief-blames-israel-stalled-ceasefire-talks-leaves-door-open-2024-03-10/">accused each other</a> of hindering the talks, which were meant to secure the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.</p>
<p>Last month Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would begin a ground offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza, to coincide with the start of Ramadan. This varies depending on where you are in the Islamic world and depends on the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/world/middleeast/ramadan-moon-sighting.html#">appearance of the early crescent moon</a>. So while authorities in Saudi Arabia reported a sighting on Sunday March 10, other countries, including Iran, reported seeing the crescent moon a day later. </p>
<p>The idea of a major Israeli offensive timed to coincide with Islam’s most important festival has drawn <a href="https://globalaffairs.org/bluemarble/ramadan-israel-hamas-war-impact">criticism from around the world</a>. It “adds a layer of distastefulness and outrage to an already pretty horrendous situation,” Khaled Elgindy, director of the Middle East Institute’s program on Palestine, told Foreign Policy. “It adds more pressure on Arab governments to at least look like they’re doing something,” he added.</p>
<p>Ramadan is a central event in the Islamic holy calendar, commemorating Muhammad’s first revelation of what would later become the Qur'an. A duality of emotions characterises the month-long festival.</p>
<p>On the one hand, Ramadan is a joyous religious holiday when Muslim friends and families celebrate by sharing large meals and exchanging presents. On the other, it is a time of profound spiritual communion with Allah and the Muslim Ummah (community). It is marked by disciplined fasting, intense study of the Qur'an and prayer, accompanied by acts of charity towards less fortunate Muslims facing hardship.</p>
<p>A major military offensive would be a serious provocation to Muslims across the world. It could trigger a new wave of anti-Israeli demonstrations, and completely derail the Arab-Israeli normalisation process that began with the signing of the <a href="https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords/">Abraham Accords</a> in September 2020.</p>
<p>If it goes ahead, an Israeli assault on Rafah – where more than a million Palestinians have fled to escape the violence – could play into the hands of those in Hamas’s leadership, including the group’s leader in Gaza, Yahyah Sinwar, who said in February that international pressure would force Israel to end the war. The death toll, according to the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/12/israels-war-on-gaza-live-2000-medical-staff-starving-in-north-ministry">Gaza health ministry</a>, has topped 31,000 with nearly 73,000 more people injured. </p>
<h2>West Bank</h2>
<p>Reports <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/rising-concerns-tensions-east-jerusalem-ramadan-begins-no-cease-fire-s-rcna142749">from the Old City of Jerusalem</a>, meanwhile, describe how the usual festivities that take place on Ramadan’s eve were replaced by feelings of sadness over the situation in Gaza and apprehension about the future of the Palestinian people. Instead of being bustling with activity, the narrow alleys of the Old City were almost empty, with many local shops closed. The traditional lights and decorations were <a href="https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/blog/no-public-celebrations-or-decorations-jerusalem-ramadan">not in evidence</a>.</p>
<p>There is apprehension, too, that al-Aqsa mosque on what Jews call the Temple Mount could become a significant flashpoint for further disturbances, which could quickly spiral out of control. According to <a href="https://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=17&verse=1&to=1#">Surah 17 in the Qur'an</a>, Muhammad ascended to heaven from the site of Al-Aqsa after his miraculous night journey from Mecca. The holy site is traditionally visited by tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims each day as part of their Ramadan celebrations.</p>
<p>Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir – a far-right ideologue on whom Netanyahu depends to hold on to his majority in the Knesset – <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-calls-to-bar-palestinian-authority-residents-from-temple-mount-on-ramadan/">proposed a blanket ban</a> on “Palestinian authority residents” from accessing the site during Ramadan. But the war cabinet has ruled this out. Instead the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has ruled that men over the age of 55, women over 50, and children up to the age of ten will be allowed access.</p>
<p>Restrictions on worshippers visiting the holy site could be particularly problematic during the last ten days of Ramadan when Muslims sleep inside the mosque and rise early for morning prayers. </p>
<p>It is still uncertain whether the delicate calm at al-Aqsa will persist throughout the upcoming month. On March 10, despite Netanyahu’s assurances that there would be no restrictions, the Israeli security forces prevented many young Palestinians <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-scuffle-with-worshipers-outside-al-aqsa-mosque-compound-on-1st-night-of-ramadan/">from entering the mosque</a> for Ramadan’s opening prayer. </p>
<p>That instantly resulted in scuffles at one of the shrine’s entrances, with Israeli officers using batons on the Palestinian crowd. The situation in the days ahead may become far more challenging as thousands of Muslims are expected at Al-Aqsa for Friday prayers. </p>
<p>A new IDF campaign in overcrowded Rafah, a drastic curtailment of Muslim worship rights at al-Aqsa or an excessive use of violence by the Israeli police in the Old City of Jerusalem could be all it takes to ultimately ignite the fuse and set the whole region on fire.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Aldrovandi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A major ground assault on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during one of Islam’s most important months could result in a major escalation of violence.Carlo Aldrovandi, Assistant Professor in International Peace Studies, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246902024-03-11T19:32:30Z2024-03-11T19:32:30ZUS attempt to ‘revitalize’ Palestinian Authority risks making the PA less legitimate, more unpopular<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580863/original/file-20240311-24-7bkwnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C5235%2C3461&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meet on Nov. 30, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestinians/f6460a47ee174da48d6a3dabc0527453/photo?Query=Palestinian%20authority&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1602&currentItemNo=15">Saul Loeb/Pool via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gaza is still very much in the midst of war, yet discussion is turning to “<a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/29/israel-gaza-saudi-egypt-jordan-palestine-meeting">the day after</a>” the conflict – and who will govern the war-ravaged territory.</p>
<p>The Biden administration has said that a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/us-says-doesnt-support-israeli-occupation-of-gaza-after-war">full Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip</a> would be unacceptable. Instead, White House officials have discussed “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/05/palestinian-authority-security-forces-gaza/">revitalizing</a>” the Palestinian Authority, or PA, the governing apparatus of parts of the West Bank, to take over in Gaza. </p>
<p>Seemingly as an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-authority-government-explainer-aefe041e045f2c60918b42f42185f41e">initial step to enable this</a>, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinians-abbas-israel-hamas-war-resignation-1c13eb3c2ded20cc14397e71b5b1dea5">PA cabinet resigned</a> on Feb. 26, 2024. This begins the process of overhauling the authority and setting up a “<a href="https://www.mei.edu/blog/monday-briefing-biden-administration-highlights-humanitarian-crisis-palestinians-gaza">technocratic government</a>” tasked with basic, short-term governance objectives, presumably in Gaza as well as the West Bank. </p>
<p>But analysts and researchers have questioned what role the PA could have, given that the body has <a href="https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/the-problem-of-legitimacy-for-the-palestinian-authority/">struggled with a legitimacy crisis</a> for well over a decade. And Israel has <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-rebuffs-calls-for-palestinian-authority-to-rule-gaza-6e5509fe">refused to countenance any PA involvement</a> in post-conflict Gaza. </p>
<p>Moreover, PA officials are wary of entering Gaza “<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/palestinian-authority-not-going-to-gaza-on-an-israeli-military-tank-pm-says">on the back of an Israeli tank</a>,” in the words of resigning Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://mei.edu/profile/dana-el-kurd">scholar of Palestinian politics</a>, I believe any possible solution to the war in Gaza involving the PA will face significant challenges over its legitimacy, public support and ability to govern. </p>
<p>But why do Palestinians have such a negative assessment of the PA, and is that justified? To answer that, it is important to understand the shift within the Palestinian national movement since the creation of the PA in 1994 and the international community’s role in those transformations.</p>
<h2>What is the Palestinian Authority?</h2>
<p>The PA was created as a result of the Oslo Accords. The accords, a framework for negotiated peace that took place in the early 1990s, represented the first time in which the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, and the state of Israel formally accepted <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/pcw/97181.htm#:%7E:text=Along%20with%20the%20DOP%2C%20the,representative%20of%20the%20Palestinian%20people.">mutual recognition</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three men two in suits one wearing a traditional Palestinian headscarf stand. Two shake hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580806/original/file-20240309-26-1zkmdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580806/original/file-20240309-26-1zkmdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580806/original/file-20240309-26-1zkmdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580806/original/file-20240309-26-1zkmdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580806/original/file-20240309-26-1zkmdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580806/original/file-20240309-26-1zkmdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580806/original/file-20240309-26-1zkmdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Oslo Accords were negotiated by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansControllingGazaExplainer/533873b1296c4dbb8c2d3d583014a7c6/photo?Query=oslo%20accords%20arafat&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=6&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Ron Edmonds</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The accords were intended to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and achieve some sort of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/what-is-two-state-solution-israel-palestinian-conflict-2024-01-25/">two-state solution</a>.</p>
<p>In anticipation of a future Palestinian state, the PA was established as a governing body. Elections were held, and the dominant party within the PLO, Fatah, also came to dominate the PA.</p>
<p>The goal was that by 1999, the Palestinians would have a state in the West Bank and Gaza. Negotiations would continue as the PA built out the institutions of the state, under the optimistic assumption that both could be arrived at concurrently. </p>
<p>But this shift from seeking liberation to state-building signaled compromises on the <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/content/resolution-194">right of Palestinian refugees to return</a> to the land they were expelled from during the creation of Israel.</p>
<p>Despite this, <a href="https://pij.org/articles/677/palestinian-public-opinion-polls-on-the-peace-process">many Palestinians were</a> supportive of having some pathway forward in which they might achieve self-determination and sovereignty. </p>
<p>The state-building project reoriented a great deal of energy and resources to the institutions of the Palestinian Authority and attempts by Palestinian leadership to achieve a viable Palestinian state.</p>
<h2>The second intifada’s aftermath</h2>
<p>When a state was not achieved by 1999, the second intifada, or uprising, <a href="https://www.palquest.org/en/node/31123">broke out</a>.</p>
<p>The Palestinian Authority struggled to maintain order and stability during the period, crucially because the Israeli military raided urban centers and attacked PA infrastructure. Analysts refer to the intifada as a moment of “<a href="https://www.ichr.ps/cached_uploads/download/ichr-files/files/000000436.pdf">infilaat amni</a>,” or a collapse of order. It saw <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20100927">massive disruption</a> to Palestinians and Israelis and many lives lost.</p>
<p>For the remnants of the PA and its American benefactors, the lesson learned from the second intifada was that such a collapse could never be allowed to happen again.</p>
<p>In the aftermath, the focus of the U.S. and the international community turned to restructuring the PA, expanding and “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/11/palestinian-authority-secuirty-forces-west-bank-faq/">professionalizing</a>” its security forces and ensuring that the PA would be a stalwart partner to Israel in maintaining security in the occupied territories.</p>
<p>But to an increasing number of Palestinians, this focus on security coordination and restructuring did not serve the needs of a people living under occupation. In fact, in the name of security, Palestinians saw themselves more and more repressed not just by the occupation forces but by <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2013/09/palestinian-authority-must-end-use-excessive-force-policing-protests-2013-0/">their own government</a>. </p>
<p>By the mid-2000s, after the intifada tapered off, it was clear the <a href="https://theconversation.com/30-years-after-arafat-rabin-handshake-clear-flaws-in-oslo-accords-doomed-peace-talks-to-failure-211362">peace process was going nowhere</a>; the Israeli government had become increasingly right wing, and Palestinian leadership seemed both less willing and less capable to represent its people’s interests.</p>
<p>In what amounted to a <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-palestinian-elections-sweeping-victory-uncertain-mandate/">referendum on the status quo</a>, <a href="https://www.palquest.org/en/node/31125">Hamas beat Fatah and won</a> in the 2006 parliamentary elections for the territories. But the results immediately led to instability and conflict between the two main Palestinian political factions: Fatah, which until then dominated the PA, and Hamas.</p>
<p>The international community also did not support the election results and empowered <a href="https://www.npr.org/2007/01/19/6923812/abbas-gets-money-support-and-distrust">Fatah to remain in power</a>.</p>
<p>This led to a split in governance between the West Bank and Gaza, with the PA losing control of Gaza entirely in the aftermath of infighting between the two parties. </p>
<p><iframe id="4sJq8" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/4sJq8/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In response, the international community – led by the U.S. – worked to bolster the PA once again.</p>
<p>The PA has not held elections since, with the president of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, remaining in office well past his term limit.</p>
<p>Over the years, the PA has continued to play a security coordination role in the West Bank but is perceived <a href="https://www.pcpsr.org/sites/default/files/Poll%2089%20English%20Full%20Text%20September%202023.pdf">as a burden</a> by Palestinians and as having achieved little in improving their living conditions. </p>
<p>Rather, repression and fragmentation have only worsened within Palestinian society, even as the challenges imposed by the occupation have only amplified with a now 17-year-long <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-strip-the-humanitarian-impact-of-15-years-of-the-blockade-june-2022-ocha-factsheet/">blockade on Gaza</a> and continued <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/09/israeli-settlements-expand-by-record-amount-un-rights-chief-says.html">settlement building in the West Bank</a>. </p>
<p>Many Palestinian today see the PA as little more than a “<a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-authority-nablus-occupation-subcontractor/">subcontractor of occupation</a> in the West Bank.</p>
<h2>Public opinion today</h2>
<p>It is, then, perhaps unsurprising that the Palestinian Authority has faced an ongoing legitimacy crisis. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.pcpsr.org/sites/default/files/Poll%2089%20English%20Full%20Text%20September%202023.pdf">September 2023 poll</a> by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 76% of Palestinians polled within both territories expressed dissatisfaction with the PA’s governance. </p>
<p>This lack of support for the PA does not necessarily signal support for Hamas either; in questions about possible parliamentary elections, Hamas garnered only 34% of the potential vote – second to Fatah.</p>
<p>These low approval trends are echoed in other polling. The <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-palestinians-really-think-hamas">Arab Barometer</a>, for example, conducted polling merely days before Oct. 7 and found only 27% of respondents in Gaza selected Hamas as their preferred party. Comparatively, only 30% favored Fatah. Although subsequent <a href="https://www.pcpsr.org/sites/default/files/Poll%2090%20English%20press%20release%2013%20Dec%202023%20Final%20New.pdf">polling in December</a> shows a bump for Hamas, this is much more pronounced in the West Bank than in Gaza. And the majority of Palestinians still are unsupportive.</p>
<p>It is clear that most Palestinians are fed up with <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/94d888ce-9efc-4e65-b93c-bea952e83824">their political options</a>. Furthermore, the PA has long abandoned attempting to reflect Palestinian public opinion – in no small part because of the international community and the role it wants the PA to play.</p>
<p>Revitalizing the PA, as the U.S. appears intent on doing, looks to be a Herculean task, given how low the body is held in the eyes of many Palestinians. Moreover, any outside attempt to empower unaccountable leadership – and ignore Palestinian public demands and input – risks repeating history. After all, this was precisely how the PA lost its legitimacy to begin with.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana El Kurd is affiliated with the Middle East Institute and the Arab Center Washington.</span></em></p>Israel has made it clear that Hamas should have no role in Gaza after the war. But seeking an alternative in the Palestinian Authority is fraught with problems.Dana El Kurd, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2247642024-02-29T12:55:31Z2024-02-29T12:55:31ZWhat is Netanyahu’s plan for a post-conflict Gaza and does it rule out a workable ceasefire? Expert Q&A<p><em>In recent days Joe Biden has been promising that a deal for a ceasefire is very close to agreement. But at the same time the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has revealed his vision for Gaza once the fighting stops, which appears to rule out Palestinian sovereignty on the strip. We spoke with John Strawson, a Middle East expert at the University of East London, who has been researching and publishing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for several decades.</em></p>
<p><strong>After weeks of wrangling, Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has published his vision for a post-conflict Gaza. How compatible is it with the idea of a two-state solution? To what extent is his tough line influenced by the more hawkish members of his government who take a hardline attitude to Palestinian sovereignty?</strong></p>
<p>Netanyahu’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/27/post-war-gaza-plan-netanyahu-israel-day-after-future-abbas/">plan for a post-war Gaza</a> is simply not practical and does not rise to the political challenges of the times. It is based on two principles: Israeli security control over Gaza and a civil administration run by non-Hamas officials. </p>
<p>But there has been Israeli security control over Gaza in one form since 1967 and it has not brought security for either Israel or Palestinians. There is no reason to think that the Israel Defense Forces can do better now, especially after this catastrophic war. At the same time, it is difficult to see where the non-Hamas Palestinian officials will come from. Hamas has had a tight grip of Gaza since 2007 and anyone with any experience of administration is likely to be a member of Hamas, a sympathiser or someone used to working with Hamas. </p>
<p>While there is opposition to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, there is little organised political opposition that could replace them. Like the US and Britain in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, when they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/29/usa.iraq">banned officials from the Ba'athist party</a> from the administration, chaos will follow. The only realistic option is to extend the power of the Palestinian Authority – presently <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/what-is-the-palestinian-authority-and-how-is-it-viewed-by-palestinians">based in Ramallah</a> – into Gaza. But Netanyahu and his <a href="https://theconversation.com/israeli-elections-benjamin-netanhayu-set-to-return-with-some-extreme-new-partners-193814">far-right allies</a> think it will advance pressure for a two-state solution – something they are opposed to. </p>
<p><strong>To what extent is this a starting point for Netanyahu? Has he left himself the political space to manoeuvre given pressure from the US and other international allies?</strong></p>
<p>The plan was provided mainly due to international pressure – especially by the Americans. It should be noted that the US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, has been raising the issue of post-conflict Gaza with the Israelis since November and it still took months to produce this flimsy document. </p>
<p>This gives us an insight into how difficult it is in practice for the US administration to use its apparent power over the Israeli government. Netanyahu has much experience of dealing with American politicians and plays the system very well. He knows that Biden needs a calmer Middle East as a background to his re-election bid in November. As a result, the bargaining relationship is quite complex. </p>
<p>Netanyahu clearly thinks he has time on his side. The nearer it gets to the US election the more difficult it gets for Biden to please the progressive Democrats who want a ceasefire and the more traditional Democrats who have Israel’s back. What Netanyahu is doing is the minimum in the hope of hanging on hoping for a Trump win. </p>
<p><strong>Does Netanyahu’s vision reflect the feelings of the Jewish community in Israel? What about Arab voters? The prime minister appears deeply unpopular among most voter groups – is his intransigence more about maintaining his hold on power than on seeking a workable long term solution?</strong></p>
<p>While Netanyahu is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/only-15-israelis-want-netanyahu-keep-job-after-gaza-war-poll-finds-2024-01-02/">deeply unpopular</a> with all sections of the Israeli public, we have to be careful in reading the public mood on policies for a post-war dispensation. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/opinion/israel-hostage-negotiations-entebbe.html">Polling suggests</a> that support for a two-state solution is declining. Israelis have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-blaming-israel-for-october-7-hamas-attack-makes-peace-less-not-more-likely-223934">so traumatised by October 7</a> that there is little support for Palestinian empowerment. </p>
<p>To some extent this is the result of the way that the Israelis view their country’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005. It is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/a-decade-later-israelis-see-gaza-pullout-as-big-mistake/2015/08/14/21c06518-3480-11e5-b835-61ddaa99c73e_story.html">often presented</a> as an example of what happens when Israel ceases to occupy Palestinian land. In this account Israel leaves Gaza and Gaza becomes an armed encampment with the aim of destroying Israel – and indeed this <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67039975">remains Hamas’s policy</a>, despite the group releasing an <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/doctrine-hamas">amended charter in 2017</a>. </p>
<p>But the 2005 disengagement which included dismantling all Israeli settlements in the strip was not the result of negotiations, but a unilateral act. The then prime minister, Ariel Sharon, did not want to hand over power to the elected Palestinian Authority, thinking it would boost the PA’s for statehood. Instead, Israel just left – and that allowed Hamas, the major political force in Gaza, to claim that Israel has <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/45870/chapter-abstract/400820054?redirectedFrom=fulltext">“retreated under fire”</a>. Hamas then capitalised on the situation and went on to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/26/israel1">win the Palestinian legislative</a> elections in 2006. </p>
<p>The lesson of this is that Israel needs proper negotiations that can lead to a sustainable future – and that can only mean a Palestinian state alongside Israel. That is not merely right for the Palestinians but essential in any plan to defeat Hamas. It’s not only a military operation but a political one and Palestinians need to be offered a peaceful and just alternative.</p>
<p><strong>The US president, Joe Biden, has been talking up the idea of a ceasefire deal in recent days. But Netanyahu’s plan seems to make the deal brokered in Qatar an impossibility. Is Netanyahu serious about bringing an end to the conflict? Or is talk about a possible deal more about Israel’s need to be seen to be playing the game as well as optimism from a US president who needs to be able to show to his own voter base that he is getting results?</strong></p>
<p>Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert argues that Netanyahu is <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-02-22/ty-article-opinion/.premium/netanyahus-messianic-coalition-partners-want-an-all-out-regional-war/0000018d-d237-d06c-abbd-daf733870000">dragging Israel into a long term war</a> to save himself. Olmert draws some drastic conclusions from his analysis suggesting that Netanyahu and his far-right allies want a permanent war that would also see Palestinians driven out of the West Bank. That might seem too apocalyptic – but it does convey a sense of the mismatch between US aims and the Israeli political dynamic.</p>
<p>Talks are going on simultaneously in Qatar, in Paris and in Cairo. It is evident that the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/27/what-we-know-so-far-about-the-draft-israel-hamas-ceasefire-deal#:%7E:text=It%20envisions%20a%2040%2Dday,and%20fuel%20to%20start%20rebuilding.">formula for a 40-day ceasefire</a> has been agreed but there is now <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-palestinian-prisoners-will-be-a-key-condition-of-any-ceasefire-deal-heres-why-224700">wrangling over the details</a>. Much of this focuses on the grizzly trading over how many Palestinian prisoners will be exchanged for which Israeli hostages – both those still alive and those dead. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-palestinian-prisoners-will-be-a-key-condition-of-any-ceasefire-deal-heres-why-224700">Gaza war: Palestinian prisoners will be a key condition of any ceasefire deal – here's why</a>
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<p>What is quite clear is that both Israel and Hamas have been dragging their feet as each thinks it is gaining the advantage by continuing the fighting. But with the arrival of the month of Ramadan (beginning March 10 – the date that Israel <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68334510">plans to begin</a> its ground assault on the city of Rafah) there is some likelihood of a Ramadan truce. </p>
<p>Netanyahu is under <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/19/pressure-building-netanyahu-hostages-hamas-israel">massive popular pressure</a> in Israel to move on the hostages even if that means painful concessions. Hamas is also under pressure by the masses of displaced Gazans who just want a semblance of a bearable existence for their families. So while Washington is exerting maximum pressure on Israel and its Arab allies, it is likely to be factors in Israel and Gaza that will lead to at least a temporary ceasefire. The challenge will then be to use the time to produce something permanent. </p>
<p><strong>Is it even feasible for the Israeli government to continue with its policy of refusing to deal with Hamas?</strong></p>
<p>In effect Israel has been dealing with Hamas indirectly all along. If the Israeli war aims were being successful it would not have to be negotiating with them over the hostage release issue. But I think that it’s now no longer possible for Israel to talk to Hamas politically. In 2009 I thought <a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/author/michael-walzer-john-strawson-ghada-karmi-donna-rob/">it was still possible</a> At the time it seemed possible that Hamas and Israel could agree a <em>Hudna</em>, an Islamic legal term for a long-term truce. But October 7 and subsequent Hamas statements and actions show that its real policy is the annihilation of Israel. So there is nothing to speak about. The real question is Israel speaking to the Palestinian Authority and having a viable plan for Gaza after the war rather than a renewed occupation. </p>
<p>The key to the next stage is to create a security mechanism that can replace the IDF and ensure the security of both Israel <em>and</em> the Palestinians. The international community – in particular the UN – has to stop being rhetorical and start being practical about peacemaking. What is needed is a security force that will give both Israelis and Palestinians confidence that the situation will change. Both sides must be able to feel secure – no more atrocities like October 7 and the Israeli response which has now killed 30,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians – and a high proportion of which have been women and children. </p>
<p>What is required is a multinational force that combines Arab League and Nato forces under perhaps Saudi command. Unless there is movement on this issue, there is little chance of a framework where any meaningful talks can take place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Strawson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>John Strawson, a UK-based researcher of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, answers questions about the Israeli prime minister’s plan for Gaza.John Strawson, Emeritus professor of Law, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2218722024-02-06T19:09:47Z2024-02-06T19:09:47ZExplainer: what is the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?<p>In recent weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/21/middleeast/netanyahu-palestinian-sovereignty-two-state-solution-intl/index.html">repeated his rejections</a> of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, saying:</p>
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<p>I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan – and this is contrary to a Palestinian state.</p>
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<p>While Netanyahu has never been in favour of a two-state solution, it has had significant support from governments around the world for decades, including the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/18/1225309529/the-biden-administration-insists-a-2-state-solution-remains-a-real-possibility">United States</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/20/sunak-reiterates-support-for-two-state-solution-in-meeting-with-abbas">United Kingdom</a>, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/01/23/israel-palestine-europeans-unite-to-defend-the-idea-of-a-two-state-solution_6457718_4.html#:%7E:text=On%20Monday%2C%20January%2022%2C%20European,Israel%20of%20a%20Palestinian%20state.">European nations</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-19/albanese-dont-abandon-hope-for-two-state-solution/103247366">Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-is-still-committed-israel-palestine-two-state-solution-pm-trudeau-2023-10-20/">Canada</a>, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/10/13/arab-perspectives-on-middle-east-crisis-pub-90774">Egypt</a> and others.</p>
<p>However, the two-state solution is now further away than it has ever been, with some even proclaiming it “<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-conflict-is-the-two-state-solution-now-dead-221967">dead</a>”.</p>
<p>But what actually is the two-state solution and why do so many see this as the only resolution to the conflict?</p>
<h2>What is the two-state solution?</h2>
<p>The two-state solution refers to a plan to create a Palestinian state separate from the state of Israel. The goal is to address Palestinian claims to national self-determination without undermining Israel’s sovereignty.</p>
<p>The first attempt at creating side-by-side states occurred before the independence of Israel in 1948. The year before, the United Nations passed <a href="https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FRES%2F181(II)&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False">Resolution 181</a> outlining a partition plan that would split the Mandate of Palestine (under British control) into separate Jewish and Arab states.</p>
<p>The UN’s proposed borders never materialised. Shortly after Israel declared independence, Syria, Jordan and Egypt invaded, sparking the first Arab-Israeli war. More than 700,000 Palestinians were <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-how-the-palestinians-were-expelled-from-israel-205151">displaced</a> from the new state of Israel, fleeing to the West Bank, Gaza and surrounding Arab states.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-how-the-palestinians-were-expelled-from-israel-205151">The Nakba: how the Palestinians were expelled from Israel</a>
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<p>In recent decades, there have been many different views on what shape a Palestinian state should take. The 1949 “green line” was seen by many as the most realistic borders for the respective states. This line was drawn during the armistice agreements between Israel and its neighbours following the 1948 war and is the current boundary between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.</p>
<p>However, following the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/six-day-war">1967 Six-Day War</a>, Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and Gaza, along with East Jerusalem and Golan Heights. Most current discussions of the two-state solution now refer to creating two states along “the pre-1967 borders”. </p>
<p>This would mean the new Palestinian state would consist of the West Bank prior to Israeli settlement, and Gaza. How Jerusalem would be split, if at all, has been a significant point of contention in this plan.</p>
<h2>Why is statehood so important?</h2>
<p>The kind of statehood referred to in the two-state solution, known as <a href="https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e1472">state sovereignty</a> in international politics, is the authority given to the government of a nation within and over its borders. </p>
<p>State sovereignty was formalised through the League of Nations (the precursor to the UN) and it gives governments complete control to administer laws within their borders, allows them to conduct relations with other states in formal bodies, and protects them from invasion by other states under international law. This status is derived from mutual recognition from other states. </p>
<p>This is something many of us take for granted. The vast majority of people on Earth live in or legally fall under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-conflict-is-the-two-state-solution-now-dead-221967">Israel-Palestinian conflict: is the two-state solution now dead?</a>
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<p>The state of Israel was formally established in 1948 through the political project of <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-what-is-zionism-a-history-of-the-political-movement-that-created-israel-as-we-know-it-217788">Zionism</a> – the movement to establish a Jewish homeland. The aim was to create a sovereign state – with borders, a government and an army – that would give the Jewish people a political voice and a place free from antisemitic violence. </p>
<p>But it was not until other countries established diplomatic ties with Israel – along with its accession to the UN in 1949 – that it achieved <a href="https://legal.un.org/repertory/art2.shtml">state sovereignty</a> similar to other countries. <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/international-recognition-of-israel#google_vignette">More than 160 members</a> of the UN now recognise Israel; those who do not include Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia. </p>
<p>Since the end of the Six-Day War in 1967, more than 5 million Palestinians who are not citizens of another nation have been <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/palestinians-stateless-united-longing-liberation-historians/story?id=103899678#:%7E:text=They%20are%20stateless%2C%20their%20identity,fate%20hanging%20in%20the%20balance.">stateless</a>. The West Bank and Gaza Strip remain in an institutional limbo – best described as semi-autonomous enclaves under the ultimate control of Israel. </p>
<p>While <a href="http://palestineun.org/about-palestine/diplomatic-relations/">139 members of the UN</a> recognise a state of Palestine, the governing bodies in the West Bank and Gaza (the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, respectively) do not have control over their own security or borders. </p>
<p>As such, the self-determination of Palestinians through the creation of a sovereign state has been a cornerstone of Palestinian political action for decades. </p>
<h2>The closest the two sides got – the Oslo Accords</h2>
<p>For a time in the early 1990s, significant progress was being made toward a two-state solution. Negotiations began largely as a result of Palestinian uprisings across the West Bank and Gaza. Beginning in 1987, they were known as the <a href="https://www.btselem.org/statistics/first_intifada_tables">First Intifada</a>. </p>
<p>In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Yasser Arafat met in Oslo and signed <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IL%20PS_930913_DeclarationPrinciplesnterimSelf-Government%28Oslo%20Accords%29.pdf">the first of two agreements</a> called the Oslo Accords. At the time, this was not seen as a meeting between equals. Rabin was head of a sovereign state and Arafat was leader of an organisation that had been designated a terror group by the US.</p>
<p>But the leaders were able to formalise an agreement, following major concessions from both sides, that laid the groundwork for the creation of a separate Palestinian state. While the accord did not expressly mention the 1967 borders, it did refer to “a settlement based on <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/middle-east-resolution242">UN Security Council Resolution 242</a>” in 1967, which called for the withdrawal of Israel’s armed forces “from territories occupied in the recent conflict”. Arafat, Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres all received <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1994/summary/">Nobel Peace Prizes</a> afterwards.</p>
<p>The Oslo II Accord was signed in 1995, detailing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-the-history-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-in-5-charts-216165">subdivision of administrative areas in the occupied territories</a>. The West Bank, in particular, was divided into parcels that were controlled by Israel, the Palestinian Authority or a joint operation – the first step toward handing over land in the occupied territories to the Palestinian Authority.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-954" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/954/a5d24879b7e2bd363807769879e7fac1913f35d8/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>But just six weeks later, Rabin was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/31/assassination-yitzhak-rabin-never-knew-his-people-shot-him-in-back">shot dead by a Jewish nationalist</a> aggrieved by the concessions made by Israel. </p>
<p>Negotiations between the two sides slowed and political will began to sour. And over the next few decades, the two-state solution has only become harder to achieve for various reasons, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the rise of conservative governments in Israel and lack of effective political pressure from the US </p></li>
<li><p>the shrinking political influence of the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas and the rise of Hamas in Gaza, which caused a political split between the two Palestinian territories</p></li>
<li><p>Hamas’ vows to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-gaza-palestinian-authority-israel-war-ed7018dbaae09b81513daf3bda38109a">annihilate Israel</a> and refusal to recognise the Israeli state as legitimate</p></li>
<li><p>the continued growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which has turned the territory into an ever-shrinking series of small enclaves connected by military checkpoints</p></li>
<li><p>dwindling support among both <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-conflict-is-the-two-state-solution-now-dead-221967">Israelis</a> and <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/512828/palestinians-lack-faith-biden-two-state-solution.aspx#:%7E:text=Younger%20Palestinians%20report%20less%20support,those%20aged%2046%20and%20older.">Palestinians</a> for the model</p></li>
<li><p>continued political violence on both sides.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>And of course there is Netanyahu – no individual has done more to undermine the two-state solution than the current Israeli leader and his party. In 2010, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jul/26/binyamin-netanyahu-tape-israeli-palestinian-politics">leaked recording from 2001</a> came to light where Netanyahu claimed to have “de facto put an end to the Oslo accords”.</p>
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<h2>What alternatives are there?</h2>
<p>There aren’t many alternatives and all of them have significant problems. </p>
<p>Some are now advocating for a “one-state solution,” in which Israeli citizenship would be granted to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to create a democratic, ethnically pluralist state. </p>
<p>Although Arabs already make up around 20% of Israel’s current population, the one-state solution would not be politically feasible. According to Zionist ideology, Israel must always remain a <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20231121-what-is-the-one-state-solution-and-why-is-it-unlikely-to-work.cfm">majority Jewish state</a> and granting Palestinians citizenship in the occupied territories would undermine this.</p>
<p>Another kind of one-state solution is not feasible for a different reason. The most far-right ministers in Israel’s parliament <a href="https://hashiloach.org.il/israels-decisive-plan/">have championed</a> an idea to expand complete sovereign control over the West Bank and Gaza and encourage mass Jewish settlement in these areas. Such action would draw the ire of the international community and human rights organisations and would be seen as tantamount to ethnic cleansing. </p>
<p>The other option is the status quo. The Hamas attack on October 7 and subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza have shown us that this is not a solution either.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The two sides got very close to a deal in the 1990s but have drifted apart since then.Andrew Thomas, Lecturer in Middle East Studies, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205242024-02-06T13:30:51Z2024-02-06T13:30:51ZA two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians might actually be closer than ever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573592/original/file-20240205-29-qs6cet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of destroyed buildings and roads is shown in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Feb. 2, 2024. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-destruction-with-destroyed-buildings-and-roads-news-photo/1973206078?adppopup=true">Abdulqader Sabbah/Anadolu via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the war in the Gaza Strip <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/03/fresh-strikes-southern-gaza-talks-two-month-pause-killed-injured-palestinians">enters its fourth month</a>, on the surface it might seem like possibilities for long-term, peaceful solutions are impossible. Even before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by Hamas-led forces from Gaza, many analysts were already declaring the idea of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/9/19/it-is-time-to-acknowledge-the-death-of-the-two-state-solution">a two-state solution dead</a>. </p>
<p>There are real barriers to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a separate Israel. For example, the current Israeli government <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/21/israels-netanyahu-doubles-down-on-opposition-to-palestinian-statehood">rejects the creation</a> of a Palestinian state, and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-14/ty-article/top-hamas-official-suggests-recognizing-israel-following-official-plo-stance/0000018c-67e4-d798-adac-e7ef81fd0000">Hamas refuses</a> to recognize Israel. After Oct. 7, <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-conflict-is-the-two-state-solution-now-dead-221967">some analysts</a> think the barriers are <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-02-13/two-state-solution-for-israel-palestine-hopes-dashed-alternatives">even more</a> insurmountable.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://asu.academia.edu/BenjaminCase">scholar of political violence and conflict</a>, I think the unprecedented scale of violence in Israel and Gaza is creating equally unprecedented urgency to find a solution, not just to the current violence, but to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</p>
<p>Few, if any, historical conflicts neatly compare to the one between Israelis and Palestinians. But there are similarities in the fall of apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s, when growing international pressure and an intensifying war focused attention on an unsustainable system – and pushed people to find possibilities for peace that previously seemed impossible.</p>
<h2>The fall of South African apartheid</h2>
<p>In 1948, the white-nationalist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Party-political-party-South-Africa">Afrikaner National Party</a> was elected to run South Africa, a country that had already been controlled by a colonial white minority government. </p>
<p>The National Party formalized racial segregation policies in a system known as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a>, an Afrikaans word that means “apartness” or “separateness.” Apartheid ranked people by racial group, with white people at the top, Asian and people of mixed heritage lower, and Black people at the bottom with the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">most restrictions and fewest rights</a> – for example, to live or work where they chose.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573574/original/file-20240205-15-wxrl8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black man walks away from a limestone building, while a white man is seen entering on the other side. There are two signs above the entryways, one that shows a black man and the other shows a white man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573574/original/file-20240205-15-wxrl8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573574/original/file-20240205-15-wxrl8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573574/original/file-20240205-15-wxrl8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573574/original/file-20240205-15-wxrl8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573574/original/file-20240205-15-wxrl8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573574/original/file-20240205-15-wxrl8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573574/original/file-20240205-15-wxrl8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Black man leaves a segregated public bathroom in Johannesburg, South Africa, while a white man enters the bathroom on a different side in 1985.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/black-man-leaving-and-white-man-entering-segregated-public-news-photo/72367774?adppopup=true">William F. Campbell/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Apartheid <a href="https://www.history.com/news/apartheid-policies-photos-nelson-mandela">resulted in deep poverty</a> and indignity for Black communities, quickly generating <a href="https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/anti-apartheid-struggle-south-africa-1912-1992/">anti-apartheid social movements</a> that South African police tried to violently suppress. </p>
<p>The collapse of apartheid policies in the early 1990s is often attributed to a combination of South African resistance and the economic pressure brought by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/23/israel-apartheid-boycotts-sanctions-south-africa">international anti-apartheid boycotts</a> of South Africa.</p>
<p>There was another <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/pcw/98678.htm">major factor</a>, though: South Africa’s “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/12/annals-of-wars-we-dont-know-about-the-south-african-border-war-of-1966-1989/">border war</a>” in Namibia and Angola.</p>
<p>Since 1948, South Africa had imposed its apartheid policies over a neighboring region it occupied after World War II, then called South-West Africa, which <a href="https://www.namibiahc.org.uk/history.php">is now Namibia</a>.</p>
<p>Like Black South Africans, people in South-West Africa resisted apartheid. Beginning in the 1960s, South Africa’s military began employing local militias in South-West Africa to combat a <a href="https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-namibian-war-of-independence-1966-1989/">Namibian independence</a> movement. Soon after, South Africa attempted to expand its control over neighboring Angola, which was in civil war after winning independence from Portugal.</p>
<p>The war in South-West Africa and Angola <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/proxy-war">became a proxy</a> for the ongoing Cold War and Western countries’ fear of communism spreading. The U.S. supported South Africa’s army and pro-Western militias, while the Soviet Union and Cuba supported pro-independence fighters. Cuba would eventually send <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB67/">30,000 troops</a> to fight on the ground on Angola’s side.</p>
<p>By the 1980s, the conflict was <a href="https://www.thecollector.com/south-african-border-war-vietnam/">escalating</a> into wider war, threatening to pull the United States and Soviet Union into direct conflict. </p>
<p>South Africa was forced to mobilize its reserve troops, and white South Africans began protesting at home. It was becoming clear that not just the war but <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253210623/comrades-against-apartheid/">the country’s brutal apartheid system</a> was not sustainable, lending credibility to those who wanted a democratic solution.</p>
<p>The mutually destructive war had no clear end <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/12/23/the-peace-process-in-southern-africa/487c4938-fc72-49d4-8ec7-74328ea3ea47/">or military solution</a>. South Africa and opposing armies were also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/12/23/the-peace-process-in-southern-africa/487c4938-fc72-49d4-8ec7-74328ea3ea47/">running out of money to keep fighting</a>. </p>
<p>This stalemate pushed <a href="https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/agreement-between-angola-cuba-and-south-africa-principles-peaceful-settlement-southwestern">Cuba, Angola and South Africa to a peace deal</a> in 1988, and South Africa withdrew its forces. </p>
<p>The war with Namibia continued, but not for long.</p>
<p>South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/apartheid#:%7E:text=The%20effects%20of%20the%20internal%20unrest%20and%20international%20condemnation%20led,bring%20order%20to%20the%20country">resigned in 1989</a> after losing the support of his own far-right party for his failure in the war and inability to impose order. In 1990, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/namibia-gains-independence">Namibia declared independence</a>.</p>
<p>That same year, the new South African government began rolling back apartheid policies, paving the way for <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-cbs-news-covered-nelson-mandelas-1994-presidential-victory/">historic elections</a> in 1994 that were won in a landslide by anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.</p>
<p>South Africa’s involvement in its border war is different in many ways from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. But there are also similarities that may offer guidance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573572/original/file-20240205-15-s8uf2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Nelson Mandela wears a dark suit and dances alongside women, in front of a sign that has the words 'a better life.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573572/original/file-20240205-15-s8uf2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573572/original/file-20240205-15-s8uf2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573572/original/file-20240205-15-s8uf2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573572/original/file-20240205-15-s8uf2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573572/original/file-20240205-15-s8uf2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573572/original/file-20240205-15-s8uf2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573572/original/file-20240205-15-s8uf2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nelson Mandela celebrates his win for president in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1994.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-south-african-president-nelson-mandela-dances-at-a-news-photo/88312698?adppopup=true">Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A way toward two states?</h2>
<p>For more than half a century, Israel has controlled the borders of the West Bank and Gaza. Home to 5 million Palestinians, these areas exist in a kind of netherworld between being part of Israel and being separate, sovereign entities. Israel controls their territory, but Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza cannot vote in Israel and do not have basic rights or freedom of movement.</p>
<p>It is a situation that many analysts have <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2013/06/27/no-horizon-in-perpetually-unsustainable-palestine-pub-52234">long understood</a> is unsustainable, as it has repeatedly given way to extreme fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. Yet with the U.S. and other powers <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/26/how-the-us-has-used-its-veto-power-at-the-un-in-support-of-israel">firmly backing</a> Israel as a strategic ally, few could see realistic possibilities for change.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/live-updates-death-toll-gaza-passes-27000-south-106861226">shocking scale</a> of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna136308#">violence in</a> the war is changing that. About 1,200 people were killed and 240 were kidnapped in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. In <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-02-05-2024-dd005061f9925525c56ea460ab5c9e77">Gaza, Israel’s war has killed more than 27,000 residents</a>, mostly civilians.</p>
<p>I think that this violence, along with the threat of a wider war breaking out, is upending the once-remote idea of significant change in the region.</p>
<p>Nearly the entire population of 2 million people in Gaza have been displaced from their homes and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/over-one-hundred-days-war-israel-destroying-gazas-food-system-and-weaponizing-food-say-un-human-rights-experts#:%7E:text=Since%209%20October%2C%20Israel%20declared,insecure%20and%20more%20than%2080">face dire</a> <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/over-one-hundred-days-war-israel-destroying-gazas-food-system-and">humanitarian emergencies</a> due to food, water and power shortages, foreign aid blockages and the destruction of Gaza’s hospitals. </p>
<p>With Houthi militants in Yemen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/20/world/middleeast/houthi-red-sea-shipping.html">entering</a> the conflict and threats from Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, the U.S. <a href="https://inkstickmedia.com/the-stark-implications-of-the-israel-gaza-war-for-the-united-states/">is wary</a> of being <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-is-getting-embroiled-in-yet-another-middle-east-conflict-it-should-increase-pressure-on-israel-instead-221222">pulled into</a> another war in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Pressure is growing internationally for a cease-fire – and a two-state solution. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/us/politics/biden-israel-palestinians-peace.html">U.S.</a>, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/four-day-truce-israel-hamas-conflict-is-important-first-step-eus-borrell-2023-11-27/">European Union</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/china-calls-concrete-roadmap-two-state-solution-solve-gaza-conflict-2023-11-30/">China</a> all voice support for a two-state solution, and <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4443055-gaza-war-gives-new-urgency-to-us-push-for-israel-saudi-ties/">Saudi Arabia</a> has made the possibility of a historic accord with Israel contingent on it.</p>
<p>United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that a two-state solution is the “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1146097">only path</a>” to peace.</p>
<p>Pressure is mounting in Israel as well, as people continue to protest for the Israeli government to make a deal and bring 130 <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hostage-hamas-gaza-captive-02b11a8ec897970589e580dee732d484">hostages still captive</a> home alive. </p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval ratings <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/only-15-israelis-want-netanyahu-keep-job-after-gaza-war-poll-finds-2024-01-02/">are tanking</a>. Israel’s economy is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/25/world/middleeast/israel-economy-gaza-war.html">shrinking</a>. And the Israeli government is <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/israeli-leaders-increasingly-divided-over-hamas-war-and-prospect-of-two-state-solution">increasingly divided</a> over the war effort, with Netanyahu <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-782778">losing support</a> in his own far-right party.</p>
<p>There remain large <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/what-is-two-state-solution-israel-palestinian-conflict-2024-01-25/">obstacles</a> to realizing a two-state solution. There is also growing international consensus that a two-state solution is the only acceptable outcome of the current violence. </p>
<p>In my view, the conditions unfolding in Israel and Gaza are beginning to reach a breaking point, similar to the conditions in South Africa that formed prior to apartheid’s defeat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Case does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While the conflict between Hamas and Israel is unique, the case of South Africa’s border war – and subsequent fall of apartheid – might offer lessons that apply to the Middle East.Benjamin Case, Postdoctoral research scholar at the Center for Work and Democracy, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220102024-01-31T18:29:00Z2024-01-31T18:29:00ZPalestinian Islamic Jihad: what you need to know about the militant group<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572434/original/file-20240131-19-lglhmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1931&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, on a parade and declare that they are ready for an on January 5, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/members-saraya-alquds-military-wing-palestinian-2101603105">Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A missile struck <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/18/al-ahli-arab-hospital-piecing-together-what-happened-as-israel-insists-militant-rocket-to-blame">Al-Ahli Arab hospital</a> in Gaza City on October 17 2023, killing 471 Palestinians – according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Palestinians blamed an Israeli airstrike, while Israel blamed the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Palestinian-Islamic-Jihad">Palestinian Islamic Jihad</a> (PIJ) militant group.</p>
<p>Since 1984, PIJ has been carrying out armed attacks against Israel. The group also participated in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of a further 240.</p>
<p>But, despite being the third-largest Palestinian organisation, PIJ remains less known than Hamas. The popular image of PIJ is often that of a terrorist group operating in the shadow of Hamas and bent on destroying Israel with the support of Iran. </p>
<p>In this article, I dispel three misconceptions about PIJ: its dependency on Hamas, its radicalism and its ties with Iran. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-hamas-attack-and-why-now-what-does-it-hope-to-gain-215248">Why did Hamas attack, and why now? What does it hope to gain?</a>
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<h2>In the shadow of Hamas?</h2>
<p>PIJ does occasionally coordinate its military actions with Hamas. But the group does not operate in the shadow of Hamas and often acts independently.</p>
<p>Both groups emerged as an offshoot of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Muslim-Brotherhood">Muslim Brotherhood</a>, an organisation founded in Egypt in 1928 that advocated for the application of Islamic law in all aspects of society. However, their identities and strategies diverge. </p>
<p>Hamas was born as a social movement with political and military aspirations, while PIJ emerged primarily as an armed group. As a result, PIJ has never been interested in providing social welfare programmes or participating in elections (though an election has not been held in the Gaza Strip since 2006). Its role is limited to armed resistance. </p>
<p>This doesn’t imply that PIJ has no interest in politics. Rather, it believes it is <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/162562">premature</a> to focus on political power until a full Palestinian national sovereignty, free of “foreign” occupation, is established.</p>
<p>PIJ and Hamas are united in the war against Israel. But tensions between the two often simmer beneath the surface, reflecting a delicate balance between cooperation and competition. </p>
<p>A few days before the October 7 attacks, PIJ organised a <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/palestinian-islamic-jihad-holds-military-manoeuvre-gaza">military parade</a> to celebrate the 36th anniversary of the organisation’s founding. During the event, it showcased new models of self-manufactured weapons, reflecting the recent growth of its military capabilities in Gaza and its independence from Hamas.</p>
<h2>The most radical faction?</h2>
<p>PIJ rejects political compromises and sees violence as the only possible means of defeating Israel. The group <a href="https://pt.icct.nl/article/interview-ramadan-shallah-secretary-general-palestinian-islamic-jihad">rejected</a> Hama’s proposal in 2006 for a long-term truce with Israel. But PIJ is less dogmatically radical than one might assume.</p>
<p>Unlike Hamas, PIJ has never patrolled the streets of Gaza to persecute “deviant” behaviour or impose strict Islamic morals on the local population. And, while PIJ vehemently opposes the Palestinian Authority (the self-governing body that has limited rule over parts of the occupied West Bank), the group refrains from violent clashes with its dominant political party, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fatah">Fatah</a>. </p>
<p>PIJ maintains cordial relations with all Palestinian political forces and often positions itself as a mediator between Fatah and Hamas.</p>
<p>Throughout the repeated cycles of violence with Israel, there have even been instances when PIJ has temporarily softened its stance. In the past, the group has discussed the possibility of limiting its armed struggle to the goal of liberating the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/Six-Day-War#">six-day war</a> of 1967, rather than to the total destruction of Israel.</p>
<p>This stance may not align with the official manifesto, but it reflects strategic efforts to maintain a unified national programme that would be supported by more moderate factions. According to PIJ, internal disagreements would only benefit the enemy.</p>
<p>PIJ has adopted an official position of neutrality over various regional conflicts to avoid upsetting anyone and to keep Palestinian issues outside the dangers of regional sectarianism. For example, during the war in Syria, which began in 2011, Hamas has gradually severed its ties with the Syrian regime and supported the popular revolts. PIJ, on the other hand, has refused to take a side.</p>
<h2>An Iranian proxy?</h2>
<p>The Islamic Republic of Iran has long articulated support for the Palestinian cause. It has cultivated relations with groups across the region who position themselves against Israel and the US. </p>
<p>PIJ does receive significant financial and military support from Iran. However, there is a distinction in religious ideologies – the Sunni PIJ does not share religious affinities with Shia Iran. So, PIJ’s role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict should not be reduced to a puppet under Iran’s control.</p>
<p>When delving into PIJ’s writings, one may be surprised by the geopolitical analysis offered by its leaders. Rather than relying solely on religious rhetoric, they consistently frame the conflict as an asymmetrical power struggle against an occupier state considered an outpost of western colonial powers. </p>
<p>From this perspective, PIJ regards Iran as a source of inspiration. In 1979, the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2014/2/11/iran-1979-the-islamic-revolution-that-shook-the-world">Iranian revolution</a> successfully overthrew the country’s west-friendly regime and subsequently severed ties with Israel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People driving their motorcycles down a city road holding Iranian flags and banners commemorating the Iranian Revolution." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572439/original/file-20240131-21-8zo1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572439/original/file-20240131-21-8zo1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572439/original/file-20240131-21-8zo1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572439/original/file-20240131-21-8zo1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572439/original/file-20240131-21-8zo1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572439/original/file-20240131-21-8zo1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572439/original/file-20240131-21-8zo1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People commemorating the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 in Tehran, Iran.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tehran-theran-iran-february-10-2021-1913879353">Amin Monfared/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But, despite oaths of loyalty to the Iranian regime, there have been times when the honeymoon between PIJ and Iran has suffered setbacks. PIJ refused to support the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-houthis-four-things-you-will-want-to-know-about-the-yemeni-militia-targeted-by-uk-and-us-military-strikes-221040">Houthi rebels</a> in the ongoing Yemen civil war, causing Iran to <a href="https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2015/09/201592084340199169.html">temporarily cut off</a> its funding.</p>
<p>PIJ today finds itself <a href="https://ecfr.eu/article/iran-hamas-and-islamic-jihad-a-marriage-of-convenience/">financially dependent on Iran</a>. But the Iranian regime does not control its military actions. </p>
<p>PIJ has emphasised that its armed struggle is specifically directed at Israel and not the west. As a result, it has refrained from engaging in terrorist attacks outside Palestinian territories and Israel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222010/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Antonella Acinapura does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>PIJ is perceived as a terrorist group operating in the shadow of Hamas, aiming to dismantle Israel with the backing of Iran – but that’s not true.Antonella Acinapura, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2219672024-01-28T19:05:34Z2024-01-28T19:05:34ZIsrael-Palestinian conflict: is the two-state solution now dead?<p>The growing rift between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government over Israel’s war in Gaza is now in the open, with public disagreement between them on the viability of a two-state solution to the conflict.</p>
<p>US President Joe Biden literally embraced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within days of Hamas’ horrific attack in southern Israel on October 7, and the US has steadfastly protected Israel’s interests in the UN Security Council. </p>
<p>But tensions have mounted as the civilian death toll from Israel’s massive retaliation in Gaza has <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/palestinian-death-toll-in-gaza-passes-25-000-health-ministry-says/7448829.html">climbed</a> to more than 25,000 – 70% of whom are women and children.</p>
<p>To put that in context, more non-combatants have been killed in less than four months in Gaza than in nearly two years of war in Ukraine, where the civilian death toll only <a href="https://ukraine.un.org/en/253322-civilian-deaths-ukraine-war-top-10000-un-says#:%7E:text=At%20least%2010%2C000%20civilians%2C%20including,Ukraine%20(HRMMU)%20said%20today.">recently exceeded</a> 10,000.</p>
<p>Biden <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-israel-hamas-oct-7-44c4229d4c1270d9cfa484b664a22071">warned in December</a> that Israel was losing international support over its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza. The administration has also made clear through background media briefings its concern that Netanyahu <a href="https://www.afr.com/world/middle-east/fears-grow-that-israel-has-no-plan-agreed-for-postwar-gaza-20231025-p5eey0">has no postwar plan</a> for Gaza’s governance. </p>
<p>And following the preliminary order issued by the International Court of Justice in the genocide case against Israel this past weekend, White House <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/icj-ruling-won-t-change-us-policy-on-gaza-says-white-house-/7459653.html">commentary</a> made clear the court’s orders aligned with US policy. Specifically, the court said Israel must take all possible steps to minimise civilian harm and increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.</p>
<p>With criticism of Israel mounting on the global stage, the Biden administration has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/19/biden-netanyahu-two-state-solution-israel-palestine#:%7E:text=Biden%20says%20two%2Dstate%20solution%20still%20possible%20after%20call%20with%20Netanyahu,-US%20president%20says&text=Joe%20Biden%20has%20said%20the,Israeli%20prime%20minister%20on%20Friday.">inserted</a> the United States’ long-standing support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</p>
<p>In response, Netanyahu has thrown down the gauntlet – flatly rejecting the creation of a separate Palestinian state. He <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/21/israels-netanyahu-doubles-down-on-opposition-to-palestinian-statehood">posted on X</a>: “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over the entire area in the west of Jordan – and this is contrary to a Palestinian state”.</p>
<h2>Butting heads with US presidents</h2>
<p>This rift between the two leaders should not be a surprise. Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and has the self-belief that goes with 16 years in office.</p>
<p>This is not the first time he has butted heads with a US president. In particular, he had a poisonous relationship with Barack Obama, notably visiting Washington to address a joint sitting of Congress in 2015 without <a href="https://time.com/3678657/obama-netanyahu-washington/">bothering to call</a> on the president – an extraordinary breach of protocol.</p>
<p>Despite the fact the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo">Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995</a>, signed by former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, laid down a pathway to the creation of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu has never hidden his opposition to the concept. </p>
<p>In a recently published <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-war-hostages">profile</a> of Netanyahu in the New Yorker, David Remnick describes how the Israeli leader made a speech in 2009 in which he “conveyed a wary and highly conditional openness to a Palestinian state”. The conditions included: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state </p></li>
<li><p>no return of Palestinian refugees outside Israel</p></li>
<li><p>the demilitarisation of a future Palestinian state </p></li>
<li><p>and Jerusalem remaining the united capital of Israel. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>None of these was likely to be acceptable to Palestinians.</p>
<p>Remnick comments the speech was a tactical move, with a larger goal in mind. He quotes the reaction of then-US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We met a day or two after the speech. [Netanyahu] was all puffed up, and he said to me, ‘All right, I said it, now can we get back to dealing with Iran?‘</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1748356896782709047"}"></div></p>
<h2>Is Biden or Netanyahu right?</h2>
<p>This leads to the current – and more important – question: who is right about the future viability of a two-state solution, Biden or Netanyahu?</p>
<p>Putting aside questions of equity and morality, analysis of the evidence suggests the answer is Netanyahu.</p>
<p>The simple fact is the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/03/human-rights-council-hears-current-israeli-plan-double-settler-population-occupied">number of Israeli settlers</a> in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) – now about 700,000, who live alongside three million Palestinians – means there is not much space left for a Palestinian state. </p>
<p>That gap is narrowing, with population growth higher among settlers than Palestinians. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who comprise <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/6/who-are-israeli-settlers-and-why-do-they-live-on-palestinian-lands">one-third of the settlers</a>, have a fertility rate in Israel of <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/haredi/2022/?chapter=48263">6.5 live births per woman</a>. The current fertility rate among Palestinians is around <a href="https://palestine.unfpa.org/en/news/pcbs-unfpa-joint-press-release-occasion-world-population-day">3.8 births per woman</a>. If this trend continues, by mid-century, the Israeli-Palestinian population in the West Bank could be equal. </p>
<p>The only way space could be made for another state would be if the government were to dismantle the settlements and direct the settlers to live within the borders that existed before Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/since-the-gaza-war-began-violence-against-palestinians-has-also-surged-in-the-west-bank-and-gone-virtually-unnoticed-218236">Since the Gaza war began, violence against Palestinians has also surged in the West Bank – and gone virtually unnoticed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite the fact the settlements are illegal under international law – they violate the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf">Fourth Geneva Convention</a> – no Israeli government is likely to try to remove them for fear of violent domestic consequences. Some in Netanyahu’s government are already talking about Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-minister-says-green-line-fictitious-urges-annexation-of-west-bank/">annexing</a> the West Bank, in the way it annexed East Jerusalem in 1980.</p>
<p>Talk of land swaps usually ends with potential offers of land for Palestinians in the barely habitable Negev desert. The major Jewish settlement blocks in the West Bank, by contrast, are in prime real estate.</p>
<p>Then there is the question of Gaza, which is barely large enough to accommodate its current population of 2.3 million. With unemployment there at <a href="https://www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/news/WCMS_901137/lang--en/index.htm">nearly 50%</a>, it is a breeding ground for radicalism, as the Hamas attack in October demonstrated.</p>
<h2>Most Israelis agree with Netanyahu</h2>
<p>The other factor is that Netanyahu’s rejection of a Palestinian state reflects the current views of most Israelis. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/26/israelis-have-grown-more-skeptical-of-a-two-state-solution/sr_23-09-26_israel-peace_1/">Polling by the Pew Research Center</a> in March and April 2023 – well before the Hamas attack – showed only 35% of Israelis (including both Jewish and Arab respondents) thought “a way could be found for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully”. That was down nine percentage points from 2017 and 15 points from 2013. </p>
<p>Among Jewish Israelis, those who agreed with the statement dropped from 46% in 2013 to 32% last year. The decline was even sharper among Arab Israelis, who had been more optimistic in 2013, with 74% thinking peaceful coexistence was possible. By 2023, the proportion was just 41%. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israels-new-government-doesnt-give-palestinians-much-hope-it-could-be-time-for-a-radical-approach-162077">Israel’s new government doesn't give Palestinians much hope. It could be time for a radical approach</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The extent to which Netanyahu, in office throughout this period, might have influenced these declines is difficult to measure. But considering the current level of hatred and distrust between Israelis and Palestinians, it’s difficult to envisage any potential replacement for Netanyahu taking a different line on a Palestinian state.</p>
<p>That reality is reinforced by the Orthodox Jewish demographics noted above. Orthodox Jews tend to vote for conservative religious parties, which means growing numbers of Orthodox voters favour the formation of right-wing governments (given Israel’s strict proportional representation voting system). Netanyahu currently leads an extremist right-wing government, and it’s unlikely to be the last.</p>
<p>That means talk of a two-state solution by Western governments is simply kicking the can down the road. It’s not going to happen. Israelis respect the US and value the materiel and diplomatic support provided by US presidential administrations, but they won’t be ordered about by them.</p>
<p>And there could be a change in leadership in the US this year, too. The leading Republican candidate, Donald Trump, had a reputation as the <a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/431675-trump-is-most-pro-israel-president-since-truman-says-analyst/">most pro-Israel US leader</a> since Harry Truman when he was in office. So, if Trump wins the election and Netanyahu is still in office next year, there will be little head-butting at all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Parmeter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The US maintains a two-state solution is still possible, but Israel’s leader – and a majority of its people – disagree.Ian Parmeter, Research Scholar, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220272024-01-25T18:34:06Z2024-01-25T18:34:06ZGaza update: Netanyahu calls for ‘total victory’ as International Court of Justice ponders genocide accusations against Israel<p>No sooner were the international media reporting this week that Israel had proposed a pause of up to two months in its assault on Gaza to allow for a prisoner-hostage exchange and the delivery of humanitarian aid, than Benjamin Netanyahu declared there would be no ceasefire and that “we will not stop fighting until total victory”.</p>
<p>The Israeli prime minister was commenting as he paid tribute to 24 soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who were killed in the fighting with Hamas on January 22. Netanyahu has also rejected out of hand the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict as an “existential danger to Israel”. There will, he says, be no Palestinian state.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571473/original/file-20240125-21-p6c35t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="ISW map showing the location of fighting in the Gaza Steip, January 24 2024." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571473/original/file-20240125-21-p6c35t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571473/original/file-20240125-21-p6c35t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571473/original/file-20240125-21-p6c35t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571473/original/file-20240125-21-p6c35t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571473/original/file-20240125-21-p6c35t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571473/original/file-20240125-21-p6c35t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571473/original/file-20240125-21-p6c35t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The state of the conflict on the Gaza Strip as of January 24 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Institute for the Study of War</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Certainly, there are few signs that the fighting on the ground in Gaza is going to end anytime soon. The Institute for the Study of War, which has been closely tracking developments in the conflict, has identified renewed fighting in the north of Gaza as well as in Khan Younis, which has been the focus of the IDF’s drive south. </p>
<p>As Gaza’s civilians are pushed into ever smaller and more crowded enclaves in the south of the Strip, it seems Hamas fighters have been able to reoccupy some of the areas that Israel had thought were clear of militant activity. And so the killing continues and the death toll, according to reports from the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry, has risen to 25,700.</p>
<h2>Iran’s regional ambitions</h2>
<p>Apart from the sheer scale of the killing in Gaza, the big fear for many is that the conflict will morph into a regional conflagration. This has seemed to be borne out recently by the US and UK airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, in response to the Houthi’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Gaza Update is available as a fortnightly email newsletter. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/gaza-update-159?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Gaza">Click here to get our updates directly in your inbox</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>How would Iran respond? The Islamic Republic already controls Hezbollah, which is harassing IDF units along Israel’s border with Lebanon, and also has a list of proxies doing its bidding in Iraq and Syria.</p>
<p>James Horncastle, a professor of international relations at Simon Fraser University in Canada, cautions that the western airstrikes in Yemen could have <a href="https://theconversation.com/western-strikes-against-houthis-risk-igniting-a-powderkeg-in-the-middle-east-221392">unintended consequences</a>, as seen in Iran’s retaliatory strikes against targets in Iraq, Syria – and even Pakistan.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/western-strikes-against-houthis-risk-igniting-a-powderkeg-in-the-middle-east-221392">Western strikes against Houthis risk igniting a powderkeg in the Middle East</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For Nir Barkat, Israel’s economy minister and number two in Netanyahu’s Likud party, this conflict is a “really big opportunity” for Israel to rid itself of any threat from Iran. He told the Telegraph:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Iran is a legitimate target for Israel. They will not get away with it. The head of the snake is Tehran … And we should very very clearly make sure the Iranians understand that they will not get away with using proxies against Israel and sleep good at night if we don’t sleep good at night.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But many close analysts of the Middle East conflict believe that Iran’s role as “puppetmaster” in the region is overplayed. Simon Mabon, an expert in Middle East security at Lancaster University, thinks this oversimplifies what is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-is-not-the-regional-puppetmaster-many-think-and-risks-losing-control-if-the-current-crisis-escalates-221430">far more complex set of relationships</a>. Iran has limited control over the groups it supports, he writes, despite offering money and, in some cases, training to militant groups in the region.</p>
<p>However, this could in fact be even more of a concern – in that the more moving parts this conflict develops, the more that unintended consequences of any one player’s actions might spiral out of control.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-is-not-the-regional-puppetmaster-many-think-and-risks-losing-control-if-the-current-crisis-escalates-221430">Iran is not the regional puppetmaster many think and risks losing control if the current crisis escalates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ben Soodavar, meanwhile, believes the threat from Iran remains critical. Soodavar, a researcher in the department of war studies at King’s College London, believes Donald Trump and his foreign policy advisers were seriously misguided when they pulled the US unilaterally out of the nuclear deal signed in 2015 with Iran, the P5+1 (the permanent members of the UN security council plus Germany), and the EU.</p>
<p>He writes that Iran remains hell-bent on developing a nuclear capability, which it would then leverage to disrupt the Middle East even more, possibly sparking a dangerous arms race with Saudi Arabia. Coming up with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/irans-increased-belligerence-and-nuclear-ambitions-show-why-the-west-needs-a-more-robust-policy-of-deterrence-221137">policy of deterrence</a> to persuade Iranian hawks of the folly of this should be a key focus for the US and its allies.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/irans-increased-belligerence-and-nuclear-ambitions-show-why-the-west-needs-a-more-robust-policy-of-deterrence-221137">Iran's increased belligerence and nuclear ambitions show why the west needs a more robust policy of deterrence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Red Sea fears</h2>
<p>Whether or not they are directly doing Tehran’s bidding, attacks by the Houthi rebels on shipping off the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait continue to disrupt one of the world’s most important trade routes. The Suez canal accounts for 12% of global trade. It’s possible to avoid the canal, of course, but this means taking the long way round the Cape of Good Hope, adding two weeks and an estimated US$1 million to the cost of transporting the average cargo.</p>
<p>As if to demonstrate that it never rains but it pours, various other key trade chokepoints are under pressure: drought in the Panama Canal is making that route less accessible while taking goods overland across Russia, always an option in the past, is no longer viable given the war in Ukraine.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569334/original/file-20240115-19-drcx5u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing the world's biggest trade routes and the various chokepoints that pose a risk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569334/original/file-20240115-19-drcx5u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569334/original/file-20240115-19-drcx5u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569334/original/file-20240115-19-drcx5u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569334/original/file-20240115-19-drcx5u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569334/original/file-20240115-19-drcx5u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569334/original/file-20240115-19-drcx5u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569334/original/file-20240115-19-drcx5u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Global trade can be disrupted at various ‘chokepoints’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GIS/visualcapitalist.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sarah Schiffling of the Hanken School of Economics and Matthew Tickle of the University of Liverpool, both experts in global trade and supply chains, are concerned the conflict could infect shipping going in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman, through which about 30% of oil shipped by sea must pass and which already has a long history of tensions. Choking traffic through Hormuz could represent a <a href="https://theconversation.com/red-sea-crisis-suez-canal-is-not-the-only-choke-point-that-threatens-to-disrupt-global-supply-chains-221144">real disaster</a>, they write.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/red-sea-crisis-suez-canal-is-not-the-only-choke-point-that-threatens-to-disrupt-global-supply-chains-221144">Red Sea crisis: Suez Canal is not the only 'choke point' that threatens to disrupt global supply chains</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Is Israel guilty of genocide in Gaza?</h2>
<p>Sometime in the next 24 hours (on January 26), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague is due to deliver its interim ruling on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. Carlo Aldrovandi, an expert in international security at Trinity College Dublin, listened in as both sides <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-how-south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel-is-shaping-up-221048">laid out their cases</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-how-south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel-is-shaping-up-221048">Gaza war: how South Africa's genocide case against Israel is shaping up</a>
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<p>Meanwhile Victor Peskin, a professor of politics and global studies at the University of Arizona, considers <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-enforcement-power-does-the-international-court-of-justice-have-in-south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel-220523">what happens</a> after the ICJ delivers its ruling. Does the court have any powers of enforcement beyond a purely moral obligation to act? As far as Peskin is concerned, the ICJ’s track record gives little cause for optimism that anything will be resolved anytime soon.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-enforcement-power-does-the-international-court-of-justice-have-in-south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel-220523">What enforcement power does the International Court of Justice have in South Africa's genocide case against Israel?</a>
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<h2>Breeding grounds for terror</h2>
<p>While the eyes of the world are fixed on the rising death toll on the Gaza Strip, the longstanding conflict between militant settlers and residents of the occupied West Bank has continued pretty much unabated through the crisis. The most recent estimates are that nearly 400 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with the Israeli settlers.</p>
<p>Anna Lippman, who researches settler aggression in the West Bank, says that 16 villages have been displaced since October 7, with many farmers now cut off from their crops and livestock. She and her team were <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-scene-in-the-west-banks-masafer-yatta-palestinians-face-escalating-israeli-efforts-to-displace-them-221104">recently in the Masafer Yatta region</a> in the southern West Bank, not only to protest against settler violence directed at West Bank families, but also to ensure that crops are watered and livestock fed, helping out those farmers too terrified to do it themselves.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-scene-in-the-west-banks-masafer-yatta-palestinians-face-escalating-israeli-efforts-to-displace-them-221104">The scene in the West Bank's Masafer Yatta: Palestinians face escalating Israeli efforts to displace them</a>
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<p>There is no doubt that the continuing occupation and brutalisation of Palestinians has made both the West Bank and Gaza – as well as refugee camps in neighbouring countries – fertile ground for recruiting fighters.</p>
<p>But interestingly, there’s little direct connection between poverty or poor education and terrorism. In fact, as Junaid B. Jahangir of MacEwan University in Canada <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-economics-can-shed-light-on-the-motivations-of-extremist-groups-like-hamas-221105">writes</a>, a study of the economics of terrorism suggests that those recruited as suicide bombers have tended to have a higher education and economic status than the average Palestinian. </p>
<p>Economic theory has some fascinating insights to offer when considering this long-running conflict, Jahangir believes – and may even provide some ideas about how to tackle the problem over the long term.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-economics-can-shed-light-on-the-motivations-of-extremist-groups-like-hamas-221105">How economics can shed light on the motivations of extremist groups like Hamas</a>
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</em>
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<p>Finally, it’s worth remembering that a lot of what we know about what’s happening in Gaza is thanks to the brave journalists who risk their lives to bring reports and footage to international attention. They do so at great risk to their own lives and those of their families.</p>
<p>According to a report by the Committee to Project Journalists published on January 20, 83 journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead in Gaza since October 2023, of which 76 were Palestinian, four were Israeli and three were Lebanese. Colleen Murrell, a professor of journalism at Dublin City University, says the big question is whether Israeli occupying forces are deliberately <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-high-numbers-of-journalists-are-being-killed-but-its-hard-to-prove-theyre-being-targeted-221042">targeting these media workers</a>.</p>
<p>But history tells us it’s extremely unlikely anyone will be held to account for the killing of these vital witnesses.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-high-numbers-of-journalists-are-being-killed-but-its-hard-to-prove-theyre-being-targeted-221042">Gaza: high numbers of journalists are being killed but it's hard to prove they're being targeted</a>
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<p><em>Gaza Update is available as a fortnightly email newsletter. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/gaza-update-159?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Gaza">Click here to get our updates directly in your inbox</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222027/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A selection of analysis from our coverage of the war in Gaza over the past fortnight.Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211042024-01-15T21:47:58Z2024-01-15T21:47:58ZThe scene in the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta: Palestinians face escalating Israeli efforts to displace them<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-scene-in-the-west-banks-masafer-yatta-palestinians-face-escalating-israeli-efforts-to-displace-them" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Our ride pulls over on the side of the highway to let us out and we begin our 20-minute hike into the village of Wadi Tiran in the occupied West Bank. Before Oct. 7, 2023, there was a road that went all the way to the village, but Jewish settlers have since blocked it. </p>
<p>Considering that in November, <a href="https://palsolidarity.org/2023/11/call-to-action-save-wadi-tiran-occupied-west-bank/">settlers threatened to kill anyone who didn’t leave the Palestinian village within 24 hours</a>, the hike seems like a small price to pay for Palestinians to remain on their land. But this is <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/facing-violence-and-harassment-hundreds-of-palestinians-flee-west-bank-villages/">not the only community that has been threatened with death</a> if villagers don’t leave the land they have lived on for thousands of years.</p>
<p>The region of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank is comprised of many small villages that rely on farming and shepherding to support their families. With illegal Israeli settlements encroaching these villages, often completely surrounding them, villagers find it difficult to grow crops and feed livestock. </p>
<p>Since Oct. 7, it has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/30/no-work-and-no-olives-harvest-rots-as-west-bank-farmers-cut-off-from-trees">nearly impossible for villagers to safely reach their pastures.</a> The Israeli government has emboldened settlers by <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-02/ty-article/.premium/israels-army-to-recruit-settlers-with-no-army-experience-to-guard-west-bank-settlements/0000018b-8f63-d7a8-afcf-afe3a9b00000?lts=1701200679918">providing them with arms and recruiting them into the army.</a></p>
<p>Even when Palestinians successfully resist settler-backed threats of evacuation, their inability to harvest crops or feed their flocks sometimes results in a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/06/israel-occupation-50-years-of-dispossession/">need to move to urban regions in search of work</a>. </p>
<p>This is a slower version of displacement that often escapes the media. Since Oct. 7, the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, reports that <a href="https://www.alquds.com/en/posts/107078">16 villages in the region have been displaced</a> due to settler violence. </p>
<h2>Documenting, preventing violence</h2>
<p>I am part of a group of activists from organizations like <a href="https://twitter.com/mesarvot_?lang=en">Mesarvot</a> and <a href="https://cjnv.org/">The Centre for Jewish Nonviolence</a> who assist in documenting and preventing settler and army aggression. </p>
<p>Often, just the <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/amid-a-settler-onslaught-protective-presence-activism-falters">presence of cameras and non-Palestinians is enough to ward off the most extreme forms of violence</a>. However, with an <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/other-mass-displacement-while-eyes-are-gaza-settlers-advance-west-bank-herders">average of seven incidents of settler violence a day since Oct. 7</a>, the protective presence only goes so far. Sometimes, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/activist-assaulted-protecting-palestinian-herders-says-he-feared-for-his-life/">activists themselves are targeted</a>.</p>
<p>We were in Wadi Tiran in early January 2024 not only to protect against settler violence, but also to ensure the <a href="https://www.alquds.com/en/posts/101762">sheep and goats can graze freely</a>. </p>
<p>We pass over a stream so polluted, the water is an opaque milky white. Our Israeli companion explains this water passes through so many cities in the West Bank and becomes so polluted by the time it reaches both Wadi Tiran and the nearby settlements that the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority almost worked together to clean it up. </p>
<p>I am told the plan fell through and feel thankful for the two litres of bottled water I have in my backpack.</p>
<p>We finally descend upon the village and are instantly recruited into a game of soccer happening outside our tent on the uneven hillside. The soccer ball is under-inflated and the material is falling apart, but this does not stop any of the children from scoring goal upon goal on me. </p>
<p>Eventually, I am rescued from the game by Bassam, who lives in the village with his brother and their two families. We are ushered into a tent and drink tea together as an audience of giggling children form around us. </p>
<p>I ask what the loud sound I keep hearing is. Bassam explains it’s the sound of fighter jets heading to Gaza. The Israeli activist with us, who acts as translator between our English and Bassam’s Arabic, explains we are about 40 kilometres from Gaza and the sounds of fighter jets overhead and faint bombs in the distance have been audible since October.</p>
<h2>No construction allowed</h2>
<p>Because there are no bathrooms, I wait until nighttime to find a distant rock. With lights from settlements around us shining into the village, and settlers with flashlights walking around the village boundaries, I’m nervous about engaging in even the most basic bodily functions. </p>
<p>I’m told an international human rights group came a few weeks ago to build washrooms, but because <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/masafer-yatta-communities-risk-forcible-transfer-june-2022">Israel does not allow Palestinians in Masafer Yatta to build anything</a>, the project could not happen. </p>
<p>Though this order has stood for several years, the current levels of surveillance and violence make any attempt at building almost impossible. Bassam dreams of building a house for his family, rather than living in tents during the cold winter nights. It’s not a lack of will or money that prevents this dream, but rather Israeli government policy.</p>
<p>I return to the tent in time to join the latest game that the kids are attempting to teach us through our language barrier. We teach them how to play musical chairs before several rounds of hot potato. </p>
<p>With the sounds of war in the background and the sights of settlers all around, I was struck at the laughter and joy that filled our tent as we played. Mere weeks ago, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/west-bank-settlers-violence-israel-palestinians-1.7019263">settlers had threatened to kill these children and their families</a> if they did not leave their home. </p>
<p>Instead, these children — who have endured so much simply for being born Palestinian — exemplify the struggle and <em>sumud</em> (steadfastness) of existence as resistance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221104/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Lippman is affiliated with Independent Jewish Voices and Labour for Palestine. </span></em></p>Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank is comprised of villages that rely on farming and shepherding to support Palestinian families. Illegal Jewish settlements are making it difficult to live there.Anna Lippman, Sociology Instructor, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2206022024-01-05T16:14:35Z2024-01-05T16:14:35ZIsraeli government riven with division over future of Gaza after far-right calls to expel Palestinians<p>After more than 90 days of war in Gaza, in which at least 22,000 Palestinians <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/1/5/israel-war-on-gaza-live-israel-attacks-bombard-khan-younis-rafah#">are reported</a> to have been killed, Israeli officials have shifted their attention to what happens once the fighting has ceased.</p>
<p>There has been considerable controversy over proposals from far-right members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-780229">Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich</a>. The pair, who Netanyahu needed to include in his coalition to form a government last year, have advocated for Palestinians in Gaza to be resettled in countries around the world, making space for Israeli civilians to reoccupy the area.</p>
<p>Israel’s allies, who have thus far supported its war aims, have been <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-uk-slam-inflammatory-call-by-israeli-minister-smotrich-voluntary-emigration-of-gaza/">quick to condemn the proposal</a>. The United States released <a href="https://www.state.gov/rejection-of-irresponsible-statements-on-resettlement-of-palestinians-outside-of-gaza/">a press statement</a> on January 2 rejecting the plan as “inflammatory and irresponsible”. Washington confirmed its support for Gaza as Palestinian land. The statement further claimed that Netanyahu had reassured the US that the proposal does not reflect government policy.</p>
<p>But while Smotrich and Ben Gvir represent the most extreme factions of Israel’s ruling coalition and were frozen out of the war cabinet, it would be unwise to dismiss their comments as merely another <a href="https://theconversation.com/death-in-jenin-israels-biggest-attack-in-the-west-bank-in-20-years-is-down-to-netanyahus-political-weakness-heres-why-209164">incident of incitement against Palestinians</a>. </p>
<p>The pair have the power to bring down the ruling coalition and Netanyahu if their demands are not heeded. And they have considerable support within the settler movement, which has been influential in the policy and practice of settlement building throughout Israel’s history.</p>
<p>And it is also important to note that proposals to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were initially proposed by Israeli lawmakers considered to be more moderate. </p>
<h2>‘West should welcome Gaza refugees’</h2>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-west-should-welcome-gaza-refugees-asylum-seekers-hamas-terrorism-displacement-5d2b5890">op-ed in the Wall Street Journal</a> on November 13, 2023, two Israeli lawmakers – former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon and centre-left politician Ram Ben-Barak, formerly deputy director of Mossad, wrote that countries around the world should accept some of Gaza’s population who “have expressed a desire to relocate”. </p>
<p>They criticised the international community for not fulfilling “their moral imperative” to “help civilians caught in the crisis”.</p>
<p>Intelligence minister, Gila Gamliel – who represents Likud, the mainstream conservative nationalist party led by Netanyahu – reiterated this proposal in an <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-773713">article in the Jerusalem Post</a> on November 19, 2023. She referred to Gaza as “a breeding ground for extremism” and called for the “voluntary resettlement” of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip. </p>
<p>Both these proposals suggested humanitarian concerns for Palestinians alongside security concerns for Israelis. But others who also support the plan do so out of strong religious ideology.</p>
<h2>Return of the settlers?</h2>
<p>As documented by political geographer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245772">David Newman</a>, the Israeli settler movement mainly comprises religious Zionists who believe the greater land of Israel was promised to the Jewish people by God. In light of this, many believe that settling the land is an opportunity to fulfil God’s promise.</p>
<p>Following the 1967 and 1974 wars, they rejected those who believed returning land to the Arab countries would secure peace. Instead they advocated for the establishment of Israeli settlements to ensure the land was never relinquished. They have had <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/israeli-settler-movement/40C60D52DD841AB3D3A07F234654B84C">significant influence</a> on Israeli policy and practice and now find themselves represented in the corridors of power by Smotrich and Ben Gvir. </p>
<p>The movement was dealt a severe blow following the decision by former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s <a href="https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Pages/Israels%20Disengagement%20Plan-%202005.aspx#:%7E:text=Israel's%20plan%20of%20unilateral%20disengagement,peace%20negotiations%20with%20the%20Palestinians.">disengagement plan</a> in 2005. Sharon evicted about 8,000 Israeli settlers from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip. </p>
<p>Settlers have been quick to respond to the current conflict, seeing it as an opportunity to fulfil the religious promise. At the end of December last year, the leader of the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/settler-group-openly-planning-establishment-of-3-illegal-outposts-next-week/">Nachala Israeli settlement movement</a>, Daniella Weiss, appeared on mainstream television calling for Palestinians to be cleared from Gaza. </p>
<p>This was so that Israeli settlers “can see the sea … There will be no homes, there will be no Arabs – it’s just an elegant way of saying, I want to see the sea.” She declared that Gaza City had always been “one of the cities of Israel. We’re just going back. There was a historical mistake and now we are fixing it.”</p>
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<p>What these positions fail to fundamentally understand is the deep connection Palestinians have to the land and their steadfastness in remaining there. </p>
<h2>Deep divisions</h2>
<p>Weiss’s position – and the aspirations of the settler movement – appear to have been dealt a setback by Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gallants-post-war-gaza-plan-palestinians-to-run-civil-affairs-with-global-task-force/">presented his plans</a> for Gaza after the destruction of Hamas. </p>
<p>On January 5, he said: “Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel.” Gallant further proposed that there should be no Israeli civil presence in Gaza. </p>
<p>An account in the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/meeting-on-post-war-gaza-ends-in-fracas-as-ministers-snipe-at-idf-chief-over-probe/">Times of Israel</a> said that the cabinet meeting at which Gallant outlined his proposal ended in acrimony, exposing the deep divisions in Netanyahu’s government.</p>
<p>Gallant’s proposal comes days before US secretary of state Antony Blinken is due to visit to discuss “transitioning to the next phase” of the war. The proposal has been presented to the US administration, although it does not yet form <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/05/israel-defence-minister-yoav-gallant-gaza-plan-after-war-hamas-palestine-control-antony-blinken-visit">official policy</a>. </p>
<p>As attention turns towards the end of the hostilities, Netanyahu will have a difficult juggling act in placating the different factions of his coalition and the Israeli public, as well as satisfying demands from the US. What is missing from the discussions thus far is the voice of the Palestinians – which must be put at the centre of any future solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leonie Fleischmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Israel’s settler movement, which is already sparking sectarian violence in the West Bank, is laying claim to the Gaza Strip – with support from some senior politicians.Leonie Fleischmann, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2194762023-12-12T17:03:39Z2023-12-12T17:03:39ZWhy we should consider a transitional administration for Gaza<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/why-we-should-consider-a-transitional-administration-for-gaza" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The massacre perpetrated against Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7 opened a new chapter in the tragedy that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. </p>
<p>For more than 75 years, too many opportunities to achieve lasting peace have been squandered, whether through the intransigence of some, the extremist excesses of others, the unbalanced commitment of a third party or even global disinterest in the conflict.</p>
<p>More than 150 members of the United Nations General Assembly, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-sustainable-ceasefire-israel-gaza-1.7056626">including Canada</a>, recently voted in favour of a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/12/middleeast/ceasefire-vote-gaza-israel-un-intl">resolution calling for a ceasefire</a>. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-middle-east-67687628?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=6578d92a87855b2dac7d421c%26US%20votes%20against%20resolution%2C%20UK%20abstains%262023-12-12T22%3A05%3A31.507Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:2e285aa8-1cc6-4cc4-a867-38f595685178&pinned_post_asset_id=6578d92a87855b2dac7d421c&pinned_post_type=share">Ten members voted against</a> the resolution, including Israel and the United States. The U.S. also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-vote-delayed-demand-gaza-humanitarian-ceasefire-2023-12-08/">vetoed a UN Security Council resolution</a> for a ceasefire.</p>
<p>Yet U.S. President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/18/joe-biden-gaza-hamas-putin/">recently expressed an intention to resolve the conflict</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Our goal should not be simply to stop the war for today – it should be to end the war forever.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These developments, including an apparent determination by the U.S. to re-engage its efforts to bring about lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians as thousands die in the conflict, requires an examination of what would be the most effective course of action.</p>
<h2>The least bad option</h2>
<p>Obviously, the chances of success may seem remote. But what
are the alternatives? A return to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo would mean accepting the more or less long-term repetition of a new cycle of appalling violence. </p>
<p>Eliminating the threat posed by Hamas cannot be achieved by Israel’s reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, and even less by the disappearance of all Palestinians from the enclave, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/17/israel-government-right-gaza-endgame-conquest/">suggested</a> by the most radical elements on the Israeli political scene. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-08/palestinian-authority-working-with-us-on-postwar-plan-for-gaza">The return</a> of a moribund and <a href="https://pune.news/international/unpopular-ineffective-palestinian-authority-cant-drive-two-state-solution-97139/">ineffective Palestinian Authority</a> in the wake of Israel Defense Forces military operations in Gaza is not credible and doomed to failure. </p>
<p>Arab countries in the region <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/11/03/there-might-be-no-day-after-in-gaza-pub-90920">don’t want to assume responsibility</a> for the security and administration of Gaza, while interference by a single major foreign power like the U.S. would constitute a form of imperialism.</p>
<p>Faced with these unthinkable options, the best — or least bad — solution seems to be to consider setting up a transitional administration in Gaza with three objectives: to ensure security, to work towards reconstruction and to lay the foundations for political stability and economic development. </p>
<p>Such a model was successful in the pacification and reconstruction mission in <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/mission/past/unmiset/background.html">East Timor</a> in 1999 <a href="https://unmik.unmissions.org/mandate">and in Kosovo</a> the same year. The United Nations might even consider reviving its <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/trusteeship-council">Trusteeship Council</a>, which has been dormant since 1994.</p>
<h2>Requirements</h2>
<p>To ensure legitimacy and a mandate, such an administration would have to rest on two pillars involving the UN Security Council: a regional agreement under Chapter 8 of the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/chapter-8">UN Charter</a>, and the implementation of a peace-enforcement force based on Chapter 7 to restore order and ensure security on the other. </p>
<p>Such a multinational approach would give hope to Gazans and reassure the Israeli government that Hamas and other extremist groups cannot return.</p>
<p>In the long term, it could even encourage the emergence of a full and functional administration of the territory, offering the concrete prospect of a political solution to the long-standing dispute with the creation of a future Palestinian state (starting with Gaza and extending to the West Bank).</p>
<p>The success of such an approach, as was the case in the past in Bosnia and Kosovo (involving NATO and the European Union), depends on the creation of a peacekeeping force with a strong mandate from the UN Security Council. </p>
<p>This force would have to be large enough to ensure security and, if necessary, impose peace — meaning at least 50,000 well-armed, well co-ordinated UN troops, with clear rules of engagement, provided by the countries involved (excluding Russia, for obvious reasons) and placed under a single command designated by the council, as was the case during the <a href="https://www.unc.mil/About/About-Us/">Korean War</a>. </p>
<p>This last requirement is necessary to avoid any repetition of the catastrophic scenario of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/0199253102.003.0007">failed intervention in Somalia</a> in 1993. The creation of such a well-integrated and well-organized military structure is absolutely essential to avoid any paralysis in decision-making.</p>
<h2>Economic prospects</h2>
<p>Rebuilding Gaza and offering economic prospects to its inhabitants will obviously require considerable financial resources.</p>
<p>The transitional administration, or even a <a href="https://research.un.org/en/docs/tc/reform">revamped Trusteeship Council</a>, would need to raise substantial sums of money and report regularly on how these funds are being used (as well as on developments in the security of the region). </p>
<p>These funds could come from the usual western powers, but also from the wealthy Gulf countries, which might be prepared to help Palestinians financially without having to become overly involved politically at the risk of damaging their improving relations with Israel. </p>
<p>International institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the <a href="https://www.undp.org/">United Nations Development Programme</a> would also need to be involved — a task made easier if it happens within a UN-led framework and mission.</p>
<h2>The return of Canada?</h2>
<p>The most cynical or pessimistic may argue that setting up such an initiative is too complex and doomed to failure. </p>
<p>But we propose Prime Minister Justin Trudeau champion this transitional administration, travel the world extolling its merits, pledge strong Canadian participation in the creation of an international peacekeeping force and propose to the Security Council the reactivation of the Trusteeship Council for Gaza.</p>
<p>He should solicit the support of our powerful neighbour and convince the U.S. to invest in command infrastructure for this new mission, which would likely be instrumental in reassuring Israel about the seriousness of such an approach. </p>
<p>Trudeau could enlist the support of Europe and try to win over the leaders of the Global South, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (which could also serve to mend fences between Canada and India).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Clemenceau">Georges Clemenceau, head of the French government at the end of the First World War</a>, once said that it’s easier to make war than peace. The protracted nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict bears witness to this. </p>
<p>But given the mass-scale violence in the region on and since Oct. 7, there’s an urgent need for the world to determine how to build a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.</p>
<p>The horrific and ongoing loss of human life compels us to be ambitious. The security of the Middle East as a whole is at stake, and taking action could also help ease tensions within western societies that are increasingly divided by the conflict. </p>
<p>It also provides Canada an opportunity <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2677447276">to truly “make a comeback” on the international stage</a>. Helping resolve the conflict is closely tied to Canadian values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The best — or least bad — solution to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involves setting up a transitional administration in Gaza. Here’s how it could work.Julien Tourreille, Chargé de cours en science politique et chercheur à la Chaire Raoul-Dandurand en études stratégiques et diplomatiques, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Charles-Philippe David, Président de l'Observatoire sur les États-Unis de la Chaire Raoul-Dandurand et professeur de science politique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2188892023-12-01T14:52:36Z2023-12-01T14:52:36ZGaza war: what do we know about the hostage-prisoner exchanges and are they likely to resume?<p>During the seven-day truce agreed between Israel and Hamas, seven exchanges were made of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. But on November 30, the two sides failed to reach an agreement on the eighth exchange and there has since <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/01/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-ceasefire-latest-news-extension-israel-frees-30-palestinians-hostages-released-news">been a resumption of the fighting</a> in the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>While this “humanitarian pause” continued, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/30/hamas-hostages-list-names-tracker-israel-gaza/">107 hostages</a> – including 83 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals – who were taken by force by Hamas on October 7, were returned to Israel. The majority of them were young children and their mothers. A few elderly women were also released. </p>
<p>This leaves <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/families-of-gaza-hostages-march-on-knesset-demand-return-to-negotiating-table/#:%7E:text=It%20is%20now%20believed%20that,weeklong%20truce%20in%20late%20November.">135 Israelis</a> still being held in Gaza. Only three of these hostages were members of the Israel Defense Forces on active duty at the time of their capture. </p>
<p>The Geneva conventions <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule96#">explicitly prohibit</a> the taking of hostages and the prohibition is “now firmly entrenched in customary international law and is considered a war crime”. This applies to civilians, veterans, and combatants. </p>
<p>While combatants may fall under enemy control and be considered prisoners of war, it is unlawful to capture combatants in order to compel a third party to carry out or abstain from something. </p>
<p>The taking of Israeli hostages is not a new strategy for Palestinian militant organisations, who have used hostages as bargaining chips for prisoner swaps. But the scale and demographics of those captured on October 7 are unprecedented. </p>
<p>Former hostage negotiator <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2023/1128/Israel-Hamas-The-harder-hostage-negotiations-still-to-come">Gershon Baskin</a> told the Christian Science Monitor that the senior Hamas leader considered to be the architect of the October 7 attacks, Yahya Sinwar, is personally dedicated to ensuring the release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, having promised to do so following his release as part of a 2011 prisoner swap. </p>
<p>Evidence from a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-attack-gaza.html?searchResultPosition=1">Hamas planning document</a> revealed by the New York Times showed there were specific instructions to Hamas fighters to capture hostages precisely for this goal.</p>
<p>Thus far, Sinwar’s strategy has worked. Due to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-22/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-buckled-under-public-pressure-to-accept-the-same-deal-he-already-rejected/0000018b-f458-dcf8-a3db-f7fa8b7a0000">pressure</a> domestically – not least from hostages’ families – and from Washington, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, agreed to a three-to-one ratio release of Palestinians for Israelis, alongside a temporary ceasefire. </p>
<p>During the exchange, 240 Palestinian women and children have been released, the majority of whom are children 18 or under. Some were charged with terrorist activity, others included stone-throwing, throwing firebombs and possession of weapons. </p>
<p>The more prominent Palestinians freed include activist <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67574546">Ahed Tamimi</a>, 22, who was first arrested for slapping and kicking an Israeli soldier in 2017 after her 15-year-old cousin was shot in the head with a rubber bullet. She had been active in the popular resistance in her village of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank. She was rearrested in November for allegedly <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/6/ahed-tamimi-palestinian-activist-arrested-for-inciting">inciting terrorism</a> online. </p>
<p>Two others, Misoun Mussa and Marah Bakeer, were sentenced in 2015 to 15 years and eight and a half years, respectively, for stabbing attacks. None of those released have murdered Israelis. </p>
<p>It has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/29/jailed-without-charge-how-israel-holds-thousands-of-palestinian-prisoners">been reported</a> that nearly 80% of the 300 Palestinian women and children detainees who were initially identified for release have never been formally charged. This has shone a harsh light on Israel’s military judicial system, particularly this policy of administrative detention.</p>
<h2>Administrative detention</h2>
<p>Administrative detention is where a person is held without trial and without having committed a crime on the presumption that they intend to break the law in the future. </p>
<p>International human rights law allows for <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/irrc_858_pejic.pdf">some limited use of administrative detention</a> for imperative reasons of security. It is also permitted under article 285 of <a href="https://www.addameer.org/israeli_military_judicial_system/military_orders">Israeli military order 1651</a> regarding security provisions in the West Bank.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/israel-studies-review/38/2/isr380208.xml">my research highlights</a> that, despite Israeli laws containing provisions to protect detainees and limit the use of administrative detention to only extreme circumstances, it has been used extensively. According to the <a href="https://www.addameer.org/">human rights organisation Addameer</a>, there were 2,409 administrative detention orders <a href="https://www.addameer.org/media/4968">issued in 2022</a>.</p>
<h2>Higher value prisoners</h2>
<p>The hostage deal so far has involved women and children, most of whom were held under administrative detention. So it is relatively easy for the Netanyahu government to justify their release in these circumstances.</p>
<p>But from here, negotiations for further exchanges are likely to become more difficult. The Israeli security establishment will be reluctant to release Palestinians who have been convicted of murder and who are considered to pose a significant security threat. Hamas, meanwhile, will place a higher value on the men that they continue to hold.</p>
<p>In 2011, Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including 300 who had killed Israelis, in exchange for one Israeli soldier, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/18/gilad-shalit-palestine-prisoners-freed">Gilad Shalit</a>, who had been held captive for five years. Gershon Baskin, who led the back-channel negotiations, details the complexity of reaching this deal in <a href="https://gershonbaskin.org/gilad-schalit/the-negotiator-freeing-gilad-shalit-from-hamas/">his 2013 book</a>, The Negotiator: Freeing Gilad Shalit from Hamas. </p>
<p>Given the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza are mostly fighting-age males, the price for their return is likely to be much higher than has been agreed upon thus far. Sinwar is said to believe that he has enough Israeli hostages to enable the release of all Palestinians held in Israeli jails, which now <a href="https://www.addameer.org/media/4968">number 7,200</a>.</p>
<p>Now that the fighting has resumed, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is likely to worsen as Israel pushes further and further south. It’s hard to see how or when it will be possible for the antagonists to reach further deals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218889/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leonie Fleischmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most of the hostages and prisoners being exchanged have been women or children.Leonie Fleischmann, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2182362023-11-29T19:18:53Z2023-11-29T19:18:53ZSince the Gaza war began, violence against Palestinians has also surged in the West Bank – and gone virtually unnoticed<p>While the world remains fixated on the devastating October 7 Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, there has been a pronounced – and mostly unnoticed – escalation in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. </p>
<p>Before the recent events, this had already been the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/22/while-fire-rages-gaza-west-bank-smolders">deadliest year</a> for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005, with about 200 fatalities, mostly attributed to Israeli security forces. </p>
<p>This figure has more than <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-50">doubled</a> since October 7, including the killings of 55 children. That brings the yearly fatality total in the West Bank to more than 450 Palestinians so far, according to the United Nations.</p>
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<p>The UN has also recorded 281 <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-46">settler attacks</a> against Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, resulting in eight deaths. Four Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians.</p>
<p>In nearly half of the settler attacks, Israeli security forces either “<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231115-surging-israeli-settler-violence-puts-west-bank-palestinians-on-edge">accompanied or actively supported the attackers</a>”, according to the UN. </p>
<h2>A sharp increase in displacements</h2>
<p>It is no coincidence the upsurge in anti-Palestinian violence this year has corresponded with the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-set-retake-power-head-far-right-government-2022-12-29/">coming to power</a> of the most right-wing nationalist government in Israeli history.</p>
<p>The new hardline government <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/28/benjamin-netanyahu-government-makes-west-bank-settlement-expansion-its-priority#:%7E:text=Benjamin%20Netanyahu's%20incoming%20hardline%20government,deal%20with%20its%20ultranational%20allies.">promised</a> to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since capturing the territory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.</p>
<p>This has emboldened Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, who now regularly engage in violence and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/christians-easter-attacks-netanyahu-jerusalem-e287dd6bad32573d1656eaea07223782">provocative nationalist actions</a> around the al-Aqsa mosque compound. </p>
<p>Since 1967, Israel has built over <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/west-bank-violence-escalated-dramatically-killings-displacement-rise/story?id=104609970">270 settlements</a> containing approximately 750,000 settlers. Despite these settlements being deemed illegal under international law, they remain protected by the Israeli military and their own security squads.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-951" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/951/58803d8c914b810a104defba8599652b6260bb00/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In February, the Israeli government transferred the West Bank from military to civilian control, which critics claimed could represent a step towards legalised <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/06/08/israel-palestine-west-bank-annexation-netanyahu-smotrich-far-right/">annexation</a>. </p>
<p>Since October 7 alone, the Israeli human rights group B’tselem reports that 16 Palestinian communities have been “<a href="https://www.btselem.org/settler_violence/20231019_forcible_transfer_of_isolated_communities_and_families_in_area_c_under_the_cover_of_gaza_fighting">forcibly transferred</a>” in Area C, which covers about 65% of the West Bank and is under complete Israeli control. Overall, <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-50">over 1,000 Palestinians</a> have been displaced in the West Bank due to settler violence and access restrictions, according to the UN. </p>
<p>According to a group of <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/07/international-community-must-act-end-israels-annexation-occupied-west-bank">UN experts</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Israel’s continuous annexation of portions of the occupied Palestinian territory […] suggests that a concrete effort may be under way to annex the entire occupied Palestinian territory in violation of international law. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/opinion/west-bank-settler-violence.html">Settler violence against Palestinians</a> also includes the uprooting of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinians-israel-west-bank-war-gaza-hamas-settlers-army-raid-militants-c1386ab6a633971cc18b2497169210d3">hundreds of olive trees</a>, destruction of property, blocked roads, armed raids and sabotaged wells. Military checkpoints and barriers make movement between Palestinian areas increasingly difficult.</p>
<p>Settlers also enjoy <a href="https://www.globalr2p.org/countries/israel-and-the-occupied-palestinian-territory/#:%7E:text=Since%20then%2C%20the%20Israeli%20government,or%20rights%20under%20international%20law.">civilian and political rights</a> in the West Bank, while Palestinians are <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/04/israel-50-years-occupation-abuses">subjected</a> to military rule. This has been described by human rights groups, such as <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/">Amnesty International</a>, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">Human Rights Watch</a> and <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">B'tselem</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/israel-imposing-apartheid-on-palestinians-says-former-mossad-chief">prominent Israelis</a>, as apartheid. </p>
<p>In a study of 1,000 cases of settler violence submitted to the Israeli judiciary between 2005 and 2021, the human rights organisation <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231115-surging-israeli-settler-violence-puts-west-bank-palestinians-on-edge">Yesh Din</a> found 92% were dismissed. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-the-history-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-in-5-charts-216165">Understanding the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 5 charts</a>
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<h2>A recipe for more violence</h2>
<p>The West Bank continues to be run, at least in parts, by the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. </p>
<p>However, the PA is considered corrupt, nepotistic and is deeply unpopular among Palestinians in the territories. Recent polling revealed 78% of Palestinians <a href="https://www.pcpsr.org/sites/default/files/Poll%2089%20English%20Full%20Text%20September%202023.pdf">want Abbas to resign</a>. Primarily, this is because the PA is seen by Palestinians in the West Bank as nothing more than Israel’s <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/israel-hamas-palestinian-authority/">security subcontractor</a> and has suppressed demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza.</p>
<p>As a result, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/26/west-bank-armed-youths-palestinian-militants-fight">younger generation of Palestinian fighters</a> has emerged in West Bank towns and cities that transcend the longstanding <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/after-the-latest-palestinian-israeli-conflict-fatah-and-hamas-are-more-divided-than-ever/">divide</a> between Hamas in Gaza and the PA in the West Bank.</p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/article/how-the-death-of-a-teen-palestinian-fighter-inspired-a-gen-z-militia-in-the-west-bank/versb7f5k">self-defence battalions</a> are intended to defend Palestinians against Israeli incursions, especially in the Jenin refugee camp and the old city of Nablus, both of which have repeatedly been the subject of Israeli raids this year. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister and the leader of the Jewish Power Party, continues to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/visiting-evyatar-ben-gvir-tells-settlers-to-head-for-the-hilltops-expand-outposts/">openly defend settlers’ actions</a>, setting the stage for more attacks. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, a joint statement by the Israeli military, Shin Bet (Israel’s domestic security agency) and Israeli police condemned Jewish settler violence against Palestinians, saying the increased vigilantism contradicted Jewish values and were a form of “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-shin-bet-and-police-heads-slam-settler-attacks-as-terror-vow-to-fight-them/">nationalist terror in the full sense of the term</a>”. Days later, though, Ben-Gvir blocked condemnation of the settlers and is <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-fiery-security-meeting-ben-gvir-said-to-defend-violent-settlers-as-sweet-kids/">reported</a> to have called them “sweet kids” who had been turned into adults in detention. </p>
<p>After the October 7 attacks, Ben-Gvir’s ministry announced it had purchased <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-says-10000-assault-rifles-purchased-for-civilian-security-teams">10,000 assault rifles</a> to be distributed to civilian security teams around the country, including in West Bank settlements. </p>
<p>Other senior Israeli politicians have also been seen to encourage violence. In March, for instance, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also in charge of the civil administration of the West Bank, said a Palestinian town called Huwara should be “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-bezalel-smotrich-hawara-village-wiped-out-rcna73444">wiped out</a>”. </p>
<p>The US State Department said the comment <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-ministers-call-erase-palestinian-village-an-incitement-violence-us-says-2023-03-01/">amounted</a> to an incitement of violence and called it “repugnant”. Smotrich later apologised, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-says-his-call-to-wipe-out-huwara-was-an-emotional-slip-of-the-tongue/#:%7E:text=%22It%20was%20a%20slip%20of,of%20any%20kind%2C%20Smotrich%20claimed.">calling it</a> a “slip of the tongue”. </p>
<p>All of this has helped create an environment of fear, frustration and desperation among Palestinians in the West Bank. Following five weeks of war in Gaza, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/surging-israeli-settler-violence-puts-161205189.html">reported</a> 69% of Palestinians say they “fear future settler attacks”.</p>
<p>The upshot of this continued violence in the West Bank is the prospects for a viable two-state solution are more remote than ever, leaving Palestinians with little alternative then to continue resisting. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/west-banks-settler-violence-problem-is-a-second-sign-that-israels-policy-of-ignoring-palestinians-drive-for-a-homeland-isnt-a-long-term-solution-217177">West Bank's settler violence problem is a second sign that Israel's policy of ignoring Palestinians' drive for a homeland isn't a long-term solution</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than 450 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the year, the most since 2005.Tristan Dunning, Honorary Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandMartin Kear, Sessional Lecturer Dept Govt & Int Rel., University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2183242023-11-22T20:16:11Z2023-11-22T20:16:11ZA ceasefire is far from lasting peace – a national security expert on the Israel-Hamas deal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561052/original/file-20231122-29-noahwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1007%2C138%2C4412%2C3469&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People search for survivors in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 22, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/graphic-content-topshot-people-search-for-survivors-news-photo/1796651356?adppopup=true">Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>For the first time since the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006">deadly attacks by Hamas</a> on Israeli border towns on Oct. 7, 2023, that left at least 1,200 people dead, the Israeli government agreed on Nov. 22 to suspend its air and ground campaign in Gaza for four days in exchange for the release of at least 50 hostages held by Hamas. That suspension has held.</em> </p>
<p><em>Nearly six weeks in the making, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-ceasefire-what-to-know-af1cfbc9dcaa1485ed7a9efaca7ec2b7">cease-fire deal</a> also calls for the release of 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. As of the morning of Nov. 27, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67477240">58 hostages</a> held in Gaza have been released by Hamas, as well as 111 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel. Of the hostages, 40 were women and children. In a separate deal between Hamas and Egypt, 17 Thai hostages and one Filipino were also released.</em></p>
<p><em>The fate of the remaining hostages is still unclear.</em> </p>
<p><em>To make sense of the deal, The Conversation asked <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/gregory-treverton/">Gregory F. Treverton of USC Dornsife</a>, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council in the Obama administration, to share his thoughts on what it means for the ongoing war in Gaza.</em></p>
<h2>Military goals unchanged</h2>
<p>The agreement between Israel and Hamas – <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-11-1-2023-blinken-netanyahu-d57766fd8e55500ff6f16b78b3560d51">driven by U.S. pressure on Israel</a> – to exchange 50 hostages for 150 Palestinian prisoners and to pause fighting for four days is surely a welcome break in a horrific war. </p>
<p>Not least, it will permit <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/22/gaza-ceasefire-deal-brings-relief-but-little-hope-of-durable-peace">food and fuel</a> to enter a devastated Gaza. </p>
<p>It does not, however, fundamentally change the awful geometry of the war: Netanyahu has pledged that Israel will <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4321886-netanyahu-israel-war-hostages-hamas/">continue the fight</a>, and there seems little sign that Israel is any closer to a plan for what to do about Gaza or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/world/middleeast/israel-palestine-two-state-solution.html">the Palestinians</a> than when the war began.</p>
<p>For its part, events have played out much as Hamas might have planned.</p>
<p>They knew their barbarism on Oct. 7 would call forth a brutal Israeli response. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5472%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A worried and teary-eyed woman holds a photo of her daughter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5472%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556196/original/file-20231026-19-m6sz0p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keren Shem, the mother of hostage Mia Shem, holds a photograph of her daughter as she speaks to the press in Tel Aviv on Oct. 17, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-a-demonstration-calling-for-the-release-of-news-photo/1742516390?adppopup=true">Gil Cohen-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hamas knew, cynically, that the more Palestinians who were killed, the better for its cause. <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6bf4f6ed-b705-4e66-ac6f-59b5ef6c0c77">Global opinion</a> would shift against Israel, and its American patron, and it has. And Hamas likely expected the <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/history/">Palestinian statehood issue</a>, all but forgotten by the world, including the <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/have-the-arab-nations-forgotten-about-palestine-in-their-acceptance-of-israel/">Arab world</a>, would return to international prominence.</p>
<p>In the process, Hamas probably anticipated it would, paradoxically, become more popular in Gaza, not less.</p>
<h2>A distant hope for lasting peace</h2>
<p>In the short run, the best that can be hoped is that this exchange and pause will be extended or be the first of more to come. </p>
<p>Certainly, Israel has been under global – and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israels-encirclement-gaza-city-tightens-top-us-diplomat-104597626">especially American</a> – pressure to agree to some pause, and the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-parliament-approves-national-unity-government-2023-10-12/">Netanyahu “unity” government</a> has felt the heat, domestically, for seeming to disregard the hostages. </p>
<p>In the longer run, after much more killing and suffering, the alternatives still remain dreary. Israel has <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/gaza-israel-occupied-international-law/">no stomach for occupying Gaza</a> and surely <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/world/europe/israel-hamas-gaza-war.html">none for letting Hamas</a> again pretend to govern. The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/what-is-the-palestinian-authority-and-how-is-it-viewed-by-palestinians">Palestinian Authority</a> remains corrupt, weak and inept in the eyes of those it governs, and as a result is a poor candidate to take on Gaza.</p>
<p>The best hope is a distant one – that some coalition of mostly Arab states but also perhaps including the U.S. could govern Gaza, perhaps exercising some tutelage over a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-says-palestinian-authority-should-ultimately-govern-gaza-west-bank-2023-11-18/">reformed Palestinian Authority</a>. </p>
<p>But that is a long way off, and the hostage exchange and pause does not take the region or the world much closer to a lasting peace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory F. Treverton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas has seen the release of 58 hostages held in Gaza and 111 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.Gregory F. Treverton, Professor of Practice in International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180802023-11-22T14:09:13Z2023-11-22T14:09:13ZGaza war: how representative is Hamas of ordinary Palestinians?<p>After more than a month during which Israel has relentlessly bombarded then invaded Gaza with the <a href="https://time.com/6329637/israel-hamas-war-netanyahu-strategy/">stated aim of destroying Hamas</a>, Gaza’s health authorities <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4320590-unicef-chief-marks-horrifying-milestone-in-gaza-death-toll/">have estimated</a> that more than 13,000 people – mainly civilians and a distressingly high proportion of those children – have been killed. </p>
<p>Yet it should be remembered that it was the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67050350">initial attack on Israel</a> by Hamas fighters on October 7, killing 1,200 people – again, mainly civilians, many in the most brutal manner – that led to Israel’s invasion of Gaza.</p>
<p>Initially, the Israel Defence Forces issued warnings to Gazan civilians to move south. But repeated airstrikes on towns in the south of Gaza have left the population fearing that there are no safe spaces left in the enclave. </p>
<p>Israel continues to insist, with the backing of its allies in the west, that this military operation is aimed at rooting out Hamas. They say it is the fact that Hamas embeds itself in civilian populations that is causing so many casualties. </p>
<p>But recently there have been signs that some Palestinian civilians are openly challenging Hamas’s authority. Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-palestinians-gaza-water-food-f225bf0723bb5b3ae1961ba6cdef1917">reported on November 10</a> that angry crowds threw stones at Hamas police in one location while in another, people huddling in a UN shelter hurled insults at Hamas officials.</p>
<h2>Political party or terror group?</h2>
<p>Hamas was founded in Gaza in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, an imam, and his aide Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. This was shortly after the beginning of the first intifada – <a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/hamas.html#:%7E:text=HAMAS%20formed%20in%20late%201987,structure%20inside%20the%20Palestinian%20territories.">an uprising</a> against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. </p>
<p>Initially emerging as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas later established a military wing known as the <a href="https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/izz_al_din_al_qassam_brigades/">Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades</a>. Its primary goal was to engage in armed resistance against Israel with the aim of liberating historic Palestine. </p>
<p>While there is international support for <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/ps/sr-selfdetermination/2022-07-07/Palestinian-Self-Determination.pdf">Palestinian self-determination</a>, Hamas’s aim – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/">spelled out</a> in its founding charter – to destroy the state of Israel has cost it legitimacy with many who would otherwise support Palestine’s cause. </p>
<p>The group has effectively controlled Gaza since shortly after the then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. In elections in 2006, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/26/israel1">Hamas secured a majority of seats</a> in the Palestinian Authority’s legislature and established a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/26/israel1">government</a>. This gave Hamas some legitimacy as far as the Palestinians in Gaza were concerned – at least temporarily. </p>
<p>Hamas’s early success has been ascribed to its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npc2n">provision of social services</a> such as healthcare and welfare. Initially, it also seemed to be a valuable counterpoint to what was perceived as corruption within the incumbent Fatah party. But Fatah and its western backers found the election outcome to be unacceptable, leading to the removal of Hamas from power in the West Bank. This effectively denied Hamas the role in the PA that it believed it deserved.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2008/07/15/palestinian-presidential-elections-pub-20298">2008 presidential election</a> confirmed Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas as the head of the PA. But by this stage the split between the two parties meant that while the Fatah-dominated PA governed the West Bank, Hamas was largely unchallenged in Gaza.</p>
<h2>Vote of no confidence</h2>
<p>But a <a href="https://www.arabbarometer.org/media-news/what-palestinians-really-think-of-hamas/">survey</a> undertaken by Arab Barometer, a nonpartisan research network, between September 28 and October 8 2023 revealed dwindling confidence in Hamas (the surveys in Gaza were completed on October 6). Asked to identify the amount of trust they had in the Hamas authorities, 44% said they had no trust at all, while 23% said they had little trust. Significantly this lack of trust was roughly uniform across age groups with those between the ages of 18-29 and those over 30 giving similar answers. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/polls-show-majority-gazans-were-against-breaking-ceasefire-hamas-and-hezbollah">earlier poll</a> taken by the Washington Institute in July 2023, moreover, found that 62% of people in Gaza supported Hamas maintaining a ceasefire with Israel and 50% agreed that: “Hamas should stop calling for Israel’s destruction, and instead accept a permanent two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.”</p>
<p>So, given the gulf between Hamas’s aims and style of governance, how has it kept control of the enclave of 2.2 million people for so long? It’s important to remember that there have been no elections since 2006 and the average age of people in Gaza is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/18/1206897328/half-of-gazas-population-is-under-18-heres-what-that-means-for-the-conflict">about 18</a>, meaning most people have not had the chance to vote for any other leadership. </p>
<p>Hamas has also reportedly <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-hamas-still-relies-on-violent-repression-to-control-gaza-42461">ruled with an iron fist</a>. Hamas has used <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-hamas-still-relies-on-violent-repression-to-control-gaza-42461">strict and authoritarian</a> methods of control, applying its own interpretations of strict sharia law, enforcing gender segregation in public, controlling the media, repressing any political opposition and eliminating all mechanisms of transparency and accountability.</p>
<p>Numerous reports have detailed human rights abuses conducted by Hamas against Palestinian civilians, including arbitrary detention, torture, punishment beatings and the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/palestine-state-of/report-palestine-state-of/">death penalty</a>. To be fair, a report in 2018 from <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/palestine1018_web4.pdf">Human Rights Watch</a> found that similar human rights abuse was just as common in the West Bank under the Fatah-led PA. Hamas also <a href="https://rsf.org/en/country/palestine">stands accused</a> of harassing journalists who criticise its government. </p>
<p>The catastrophic Hamas attack on October 7 which has led to the deaths of so many Palestinian civilians in Gaza has eliminated any pretence of legitimacy that Hamas may ever have had in the eyes of most of the world. Indeed, the days of Hamas may be over. But this will only increase the urgency of finding a long-term solution for Palestine, something that seems further away than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christoph Bluth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hamas rules Gaza with repression and violence and polls show that it does not have the support of ordinary Palestinians.Christoph Bluth, Professor of International Relations and Security, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2171772023-11-21T13:23:05Z2023-11-21T13:23:05ZWest Bank’s settler violence problem is a second sign that Israel’s policy of ignoring Palestinians’ drive for a homeland isn’t a long-term solution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560207/original/file-20231117-23-fmuu8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5991%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Israeli soldiers patrol the Palestinian Bedouin village of Tala (Thala) in the occupied West Bank on Oct. 26, 2023, after residents were attacked by Israeli settlers the same day.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israeli-soldiers-patrol-in-the-palestinian-bedouin-village-news-photo/1783231360?adppopup=true">HOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With violence and destruction raging in southern Israel and Gaza, there has been less attention on the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinians-israel-west-bank-war-gaza-hamas-settlers-army-raid-militants-c1386ab6a633971cc18b2497169210d3">worsening violence in the West Bank</a>, the other half of the occupied territories. </p>
<p>Since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and the onset of Israel’s war in Gaza, Israelis and Palestinians have been thrust back into the headlines. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-revises-death-toll-oct-7-hamas-attack-around-1200-2023-11-10/">Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis</a> on Oct. 7 and took more than 200 hostages; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/gaza-rising-death-toll-civilians/">Israelis have killed at least 11,000 Palestinians</a> in a response that has <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-to-define-genocide">sparked a debate</a> about whether what the world is witnessing amounts to war crimes, ethnic cleansing or genocide. </p>
<p>Before Oct. 7, West Bank Palestinians were already experiencing the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestine-settler-bedouin-displacement-violence-un-108e11712310b5ea099dbded7be8effb">highest level of settler violence</a> since 2006. </p>
<p>Israeli settlers, empowered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/facing-violence-and-harassment-hundreds-of-palestinians-flee-west-bank-villages/">have increased their attacks on and harassment of</a> Palestinian rural communities since the start of the war. This is often done with the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/settlers-rampage-through-palestinian-olive-grove-harass-activists-in-west-bank/">backing of the Israeli military</a>, as Israeli soldiers stand guard, preventing a Palestinian response. Sometimes, the attacks take place with the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/09/west-bank-palestinians-israeli-settlers-attacks-idf/">military’s involvement</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/11/1143087">United Nations has recorded over 200</a> settler attacks in the past month. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem reports that since the start of the war, 16 villages and their 880 <a href="https://www.btselem.org/settler_violence/20231019_forcible_transfer_of_isolated_communities_and_families_in_area_c_under_the_cover_of_gaza_fighting">Palestinian residents have been completely displaced</a> as a result of these attacks; <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-west-bank-elderly-man-killed">180 Palestinians have been killed</a> and 64 injured. Over <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/palestinian-man-beaten-isreali-settlers-troops-west-bank-rcna123488">2,000 Palestinians have been arrested</a>. Videos of their mistreatment and torture have gone viral.</p>
<p>The escalation of violence in the West Bank is neither arbitrary nor disconnected from the violence in Gaza. Instead, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3vs_e5QAAAAJ&hl=en">a political scientist who studies Palestinian politics</a>, I believe it should be understood in the broader context. The proliferation of armed settlers in the West Bank, the <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15424.doc.htm">expansion of illegal settler outposts</a> and now the increasing violence and forced displacement all stem from the same underlying policy that led to the 16-year blockade of Gaza: an Israeli policy of ignoring Palestinian national claims altogether. </p>
<p>This policy disregards political solutions and pursues violent ones. The policy has not just taken hold in Israel but has been facilitated by American and Arab support.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/szgA1c5vOfg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Since the Israel-Hamas war started, Jewish settler attacks on Palestinians have increased, including in this community.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Surrender or transfer</h2>
<p>Israel’s policy entails <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-12-03/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-face-of-israels-far-right-wants-to-abort-palestinian-hope/0000017f-f2f8-d497-a1ff-f2f875960000">building new settlements in order to “abort</a>” the Palestinian state, in the words of influential right-wing cabinet member <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-west-bank-settlements-smotrich-1f16401de915559965e906f70269908b">Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself</a>. This happens as the Israeli government facilitates fragmented governance between the West Bank and Gaza. The goal: Impose a “<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-09-13/ty-article/.premium/israeli-party-approves-annexation-plan-to-coerce-palestinian-departure/0000017f-df1c-db22-a17f-ffbd22860000">surrender or transfer</a>” ultimatum on the Palestinian people. </p>
<p>The Israeli policy is to simply disregard any Palestinian claims to a national home and instead support settler violence to further Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land. It is a policy of nonengagement with the issues animating the conflict, relying on coercion to achieve Israeli goals of full annexation. </p>
<p>The surrender or transfer proposal in particular comes from Smotrich, who outlined these ideas in his 2017 <a href="https://hashiloach.org.il/israels-decisive-plan/">Decisive Plan</a>. The phrase “surrender or transfer” means Palestinians would have to give up the hope that they can have their own national identity, state or even equal rights. If they refuse to surrender to this reality, then they will be forced to leave. Palestinians in the territories, many of them already refugees, would be expelled into neighboring countries – not with the approval of anyone in those countries, however.</p>
<p>Smotrich’s 2017 proposal laid out his plans and worldview, and while the Israeli government has not officially adopted the “Decisive Plan,” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinians-israel-occupation-west-bank-smotrich-netanyahu-e262d0bca6a637d217852ea238ab45b2">Smotrich and his allies are now in government</a>. This has meant that the plan has been a de facto adopted plan by key ministries in the government.</p>
<p>In particular, Smotrich, as retired Israel Maj. Gen. Yaakov Or wrote, can “<a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-744547">allocate the vast resources necessary to put his plan into practice</a>.” The results over the past two years are clear. Illegal outposts have been quickly authorized and large budgets approved for the creation of supporting infrastructure. When settlers <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/15/middleeast/huwara-west-bank-settler-attack-cmd-intl/index.html">engaged in pogroms</a> in West Bank villages, Smotrich went on record that these villages should <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/1/israel-arrests-settlers-after-anti-palestinian-pogrom">indeed be wiped out</a> – not by vigilantes but by the state itself. </p>
<p>When the peace process is discussed, the Israeli government states <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2023-11-13/ty-article/.premium/the-palestinian-authority-is-israels-partner/0000018b-c4d4-d25b-abdf-ddfda1550000">there is no partner for peace</a> and that the Palestinians are unable to govern themselves. </p>
<p>This narrative suits the overarching goal of ignoring Palestinian aspirations. Netanyahu and members of his cabinet have even <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/10/14/hamas-israel-palestinian-authority/">referred to Hamas as an “asset</a>” because it acts as a counterweight to other Palestinian political figures. Hamas’ <a href="https://jacobin.com/2023/11/hamas-israel-palestine-gaza-history-decolonization-violence">ideological positions</a> then lend credence to the idea that a peace process is impossible. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/60SY9APunS4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Armed settlers have forced Palestinians out of their West Bank village.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Spreading Smotrich’s ideas</h2>
<p>Israeli <a href="https://justvision.org/team/orly-noy">human rights activist Orly Noy</a> has recently warned that these ideas – ignoring Palestinian aspirations and dealing with the conflict only by force – have permeated Israeli society, calling it the “<a href="https://www.972mag.com/smotrich-decisive-plan-israeli-public/">Smotrichization</a>” of Israeli politics. </p>
<p>Many within Israel, Noy argues, believe that the conflict with Palestinians can be managed through sheer coercion. An “inferior, de-Palestinianized existence” was, until Oct. 7, “most Israelis’ chosen option.” Furthermore, Noy wrote in a recent magazine article, “Expelling Gaza’s population makes perfect sense to most Israelis.” Thus, Palestinian “refusal to submit to the might of the Israeli regime is perceived as an existential threat and a sufficient reason for their annihilation.”</p>
<p>As a result of Smotrichization, there is <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-human-rights/inside-the-israeli-crackdown-on-speech">very little room or opportunity</a> today for those who advocate for a peaceful future, a shared future or both. </p>
<p>A small minority of Palestinians hold Israeli citizenship, accounting for 20% of the Israeli population. These citizens have been <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10925">uniquely targeted</a>, facing a “severe crackdown on their freedoms of expression and assembly,” according to Adalah, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-gaza-war-free-speech/">an organization that provides legal representation to Israel’s Arab citizens</a>. The Israeli left and critics of the government <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/opinion/israel-free-speech-hamas-palestine.html">have also faced efforts to restrict their speech</a>.</p>
<h2>US and Arab role</h2>
<p>The U.S. and its regional allies have also ignored Palestinian aspirations and meaningful progress on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Instead, they’ve opted for policies that <a href="https://theconversation.com/historic-israel-deal-wont-likely-bring-peace-to-the-middle-east-144480">sideline Palestinians and bypass the issues</a> animating continued violence. </p>
<p>Normalization of diplomatic and trade relations between Arab states and Israel has become the focus of both the Trump and Biden Middle East policies. Such deals are the clearest manifestation of ignoring Palestinian aspirations, beginning with the Trump administration’s “<a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/peacetoprosperity/">Peace to Prosperity</a>” proposal and the Abraham Accords, and then with the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/04/06/negev-summit-s-participants-had-wildly-different-goals-pub-86826">Biden administration’s Negev Summit</a> and continued <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/08/us/politics/saudi-arabia-israel-palestinians-hamas.html">push for Israeli-Saudi normalization</a>.</p>
<p>Unlike the Israeli government, U.S. administrations and Arab regimes likely want to avoid large-scale forced displacement of Palestinians, which would undoubtedly destabilize the region. Arab officials have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/egypt-rejects-any-displacement-palestinians-into-sinai-says-sisi-2023-10-18/">made this clear</a> in recent weeks, especially after Israel <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-population-transfer-hamas-egypt-palestinians-refugees-5f99378c0af6aca183a90c631fa4da5a">floated the idea of</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/31/resettle-gazans-abroad-biden-sends-clear-message-no/">moving displaced Gazans to the Sinai Peninsula</a>. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, normalization deals have provided the Israeli government with unspoken permission to continue aggressive settlement policies, without concern over international backlash. </p>
<p>These deals, touted by the U.S. and others as symbols of progress in a conflict-filled region, also strengthened the impression among Israeli society and politicians that Israel can continue to ignore the issue of Palestinians and their unmet national claims. </p>
<p>From the Israeli perspective, even Arab regimes had proven willing to ignore the Palestinian issue, normalize relations in spite of illegal settlement activity and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/isagsq/article/3/3/ksad042/7280243">suppress pro-Palestine sentiment in their own countries</a>. There were no regional or international incentives for Israel to change the policy.</p>
<p>This thought process was made clear in a February 2023 interview with Netanyahu. No one, he said, should “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-cnn-interview-israel-intl/index.html">get hung up on</a>” the issue of peace with Palestinians. </p>
<p>His logic was clear: “I went around them (Palestinians), I went directly to the Arab states and forged a new concept of peace.” </p>
<p>This “new concept of peace” is not what regular people would think of as peace, which entails ending conflict. Instead, it’s what political scientists like me call “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836718765902">authoritarian conflict management</a>.” This conflict management is described by scholars David Lewis, John Heathershaw and Nick Megoran as one that ignores genuine negotiations or constraints on the use of force, disregards the underlying causes of conflict and instead relies on state coercion to impose a new status quo. </p>
<p>So while the public has understandably been focused on the unprecedented destruction in Gaza, the deadly assaults by Israeli settlers on West Bank Palestinians are part of the larger picture. They should be understood as yet another manifestation of the dynamics driving recent trends in Israeli politics: a policy of nonengagement with Palestinian national claims.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217177/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana El Kurd is affiliated with the Arab Center Washington and the Middle East Institute. </span></em></p>While the war in Gaza has riveted public attention, the simultaneous escalation of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank is not disconnected from the violence in Gaza.Dana El Kurd, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2177652023-11-16T15:00:56Z2023-11-16T15:00:56ZPalestine was never a ‘land without a people’<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/0ba10cf2-be56-4b6e-8598-96c6fb5197b7?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><em>Modern settlers to Palestine viewed the desert as something they needed to “make bloom.” But it already was, thanks to the long history of Palestinian agricultural systems.</em></p>
<p>As violence continues to erupt in Gaza, and more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain missing, many of us are seeking to better understand the context of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/israeli-palestinian-conflict-140823">Israeli-Palestinian conflict</a> that has been raging for decades. </p>
<p>Some of us assume that the violence between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians — a majority of whom are Muslim — is a religious conflict, but a closer look at the history of the last century reveals that the root of the tension between the two communities is more complicated than that.</p>
<p>At its root, it’s a conflict between two communities that claim the right to the same land. For millions of Palestinians, it’s about displacement from that land. </p>
<p>Land has so much meaning. It’s more than territory; it represents home, your ancestral connection and culture — but also the means to feed yourself and your country. </p>
<p>One of the things that colonizers are famous for is the idea of <em>terra nullius</em> – that the land is empty of people before they come to occupy it. </p>
<p>In the case of Palestine, the Jewish settlers in 1948, and the British before that, viewed the desert as empty — something they needed to <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/38553">“make bloom.”</a> </p>
<p>But the land was already blooming. There is a long history of Palestinian connection to the land, including through agricultural systems and a rich food culture that is often overlooked by colonial powers.</p>
<p>Our guests on <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/palestine-was-never-a-land-without-people">this week’s episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> have been working on a film about the importance of preserving Palestinian agriculture and food in exile.</p>
<p>Elizabeth Vibert is a professor of colonial history at University of Victoria. She has been doing oral history research to examine historical and contemporary causes of food crises in various settings, including Palestinian refugees in Jordan.</p>
<p>Salam Guenette is the consulting producer and cultural and language translator for their documentary project. She holds a master’s degree in history.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The relationship with agriculture and the land is the original colonizing relationship. The colonizers came in, viewed Indigenous peoples worldwide as not moving and living appropriately and productively enough on the land.
- Elizabeth Vibert, professor of colonial history</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Read more in The Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-colonialist-depictions-of-palestinians-feed-western-ideas-of-eastern-barbarism-217513">How colonialist depictions of Palestinians feed western ideas of eastern 'barbarism'</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-women-in-israel-and-palestine-are-pushing-for-peace-together-215783">How women in Israel and Palestine are pushing for peace — together</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestine-conflict-how-sharing-the-waters-of-the-jordan-river-could-be-a-pathway-to-peace-216044">Israel-Palestine conflict: How sharing the waters of the Jordan River could be a pathway to peace</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/recognition-versus-reality-lessons-from-30-years-of-talking-about-a-palestinian-state-212648">Recognition versus reality: Lessons from 30 years of talking about a Palestinian state</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29038"><em>Dear Palestine</em> by Shay Hazkani</a></p>
<p><a href="https://handmadepalestine.com/en-ca/blogs/free-educational-resources/palestinian-wild-food-plants"><em>A Guide to Palestinian Wild Food Plants</em></a>
by Omar Tesdell (and collective) </p>
<p><em><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250291530/adayinthelifeofabedsalama">A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy</a></em> by Nathan Thrall </p>
<p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/159783/orientalism-by-edward-w-said/9780394740676"><em>Orientalism</em> by Edward Said</a></p>
<h2>Listen and follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_mJBLBznANz6ID9rBCUk7gv_ZRC4Og9-">YouTube</a> or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. </p>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dontcallmeresilientpodcast/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217765/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Modern settlers to Palestine viewed the desert as something they needed to “make bloom.” But it already was, thanks to the long history of Palestinian agricultural systems.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientAteqah Khaki, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2174912023-11-16T13:18:51Z2023-11-16T13:18:51Z‘From the river to the sea’ – a Palestinian historian explores the meaning and intent of scrutinized slogan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559740/original/file-20231115-19-9tmpne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C302%2C4996%2C3053&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A pro-Palestinian activist in the U.K.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pro-palestinian-activist-holds-up-a-sign-reading-from-the-news-photo/1767735727?adppopup=true">Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does the call “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/river-sea-israel-gaza-hamas-protests-d7abbd756f481fe50b6fa5c0b907cd49">From the river to the sea</a>, Palestine will be free” mean to Palestinians who say it? And why do they keep using the slogan despite the controversy that surrounds its use?</p>
<p>As both a <a href="https://menas.arizona.edu/person/maha-nassar">scholar of Palestinian history</a> and someone from the Palestinian diaspora, I have observed the decades-old phrase gain new life – and scrutiny – in the massive pro-Palestinian marches <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/04/1210669096/palestine-march-washington-dc-cease-fire-israel-protest-gaza">in the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/4/demonstrations-around-the-world-renew-calls-for-gaza-ceasefire">around the world</a> that have occurred during the Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. </p>
<p>Pro-Israel groups, including the U.S.-based <a href="https://www.adl.org/myths-facts-about-adl">Anti-Defamation League</a>, have labeled <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/allegation-river-sea-palestine-will-be-free?gclid=Cj0KCQiAr8eqBhD3ARIsAIe-buNxvQjDx5nWGNcDrO9OE4lECB5TruGtplZXCVhLsWVFqHWkTf_CqHgaAoBfEALw_wcB">the phrase “antisemitic</a>.” It has even led to a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-censures-lone-palestinian-american-lawmaker-over-israel-comments-2023-11-08/">rare censure of House Rep.</a> Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, for using the phrase.</p>
<p>But to Tlaib, and countless others, the phrase isn’t antisemitic at all. Rather, it is, <a href="https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1720574880557539763">in Tlaib’s words</a>, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence.”</p>
<p>I cannot speak to what is in the heart of every person who uses the phrase. But I can speak to what the phrase has meant to various groups of Palestinians throughout history, and the intent behind most people who use it today.</p>
<p>Simply put, the majority of Palestinians who use this phrase do so because they believe that, in 10 short words, it sums up their personal ties, their national rights and their vision for the land they call Palestine. And while attempts to police the slogan’s use may come from a place of genuine concern, there is a risk that tarring the slogan as antisemitic – and therefore beyond the pale – taps into a longer history of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/19/palestinian-writers-canceled-censorship-literature/">attempts to silence Palestinian voices</a>.</p>
<h2>An expression of personal ties</h2>
<p>One reason for the phrase’s appeal is that it speaks to Palestinians’ deep personal ties to the land. They have long <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/palestinian-identity/9780231150743">identified themselves</a> – and one another – by the town or village in Palestine from which they came. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559739/original/file-20231115-23-gdrvv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old map shows a land mass next to a sea." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559739/original/file-20231115-23-gdrvv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559739/original/file-20231115-23-gdrvv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559739/original/file-20231115-23-gdrvv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559739/original/file-20231115-23-gdrvv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559739/original/file-20231115-23-gdrvv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559739/original/file-20231115-23-gdrvv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559739/original/file-20231115-23-gdrvv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1902 map of Palestine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/map-of-palestine-ancient-and-modern-1902-showing-the-news-photo/1055145688?adppopup=true">The Print Collector/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And those places stretched across the land, from Jericho and Safed near the Jordan River in the east, to Jaffa and Haifa on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the west. </p>
<p>These deeply personal ties were passed down over generations through <a href="https://www.tatreezandtea.com">clothing</a>, <a href="https://justworldbooks.com/books/the-gaza-kitchen-third-edition/">cuisine</a> and subtle differences in <a href="https://aclanthology.org/W14-3603.pdf">Arabic</a> <a href="https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004499140/BP000009.xml?language=en">dialects</a> that are specific to locations within Palestine.</p>
<p>And those ties continue today. Children and grandchildren of Palestinian refugees often feel a <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2640111484?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">personal connection</a> to the specific places their ancestors hailed from.</p>
<h2>A demand for national rights</h2>
<p>But the phrase is not simply a reference to geography. It’s political.</p>
<p>“From the river to the sea” also seeks to reaffirm Palestinians’ national rights over their homeland and a desire for a unified Palestine to form the basis of an independent state.</p>
<p>When Palestine was under <a href="https://time.com/3445003/mandatory-palestine/">British colonial rule</a> from 1917 to 1948, its Arab inhabitants objected strongly to partition proposals advocated by British and Zionist interests. That’s because, buried deep in the proposals, were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2151845">stipulations that would have forced</a> hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs off their ancestral lands.</p>
<p>In 1946, the Delegation of Arab Governments <a href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/amed/amedeltaher/2017498789/2017498789.pdf">proposed instead</a> a “unitary state” with a “democratic constitution” that would guarantee “freedom of religious practice” for all and would recognize “the right of Jews to employ the Hebrew language as a second official language.” </p>
<p>The following year, the United Nations instead approved a partition plan for Palestine, which would have forced 500,000 Palestinian Arabs living in the proposed Jewish state to <a href="https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/framing-the-partition-plan-for-palestine/">choose between</a> living as a minority in their own country or leaving.</p>
<p>It’s in this context that the call for a unified, independent Palestine emerges, <a href="https://twitter.com/AbuMrouj/status/1721575189207470431">according to</a> Arabic scholar Elliott Colla.</p>
<p>During the 1948 war that led to the formation of the state of Israel, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">around 750,000 Palestinian Arabs</a> fled or were expelled from their villages and towns. By the end of the war, Palestine was <a href="http://www.passia.org/maps/view/15">split into three</a>: 78% of the land became part of the Jewish state of Israel, while the remainder fell under Jordanian or Egyptian rule. </p>
<p>Palestinian refugees believed they had a <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-210170/">right to return</a> to their homes in the new state of Israel. Israeli leaders, seeking to maintain the state’s Jewish majority, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2013-12-19/ty-article/.premium/israels-nixed-plan-to-resettle-arabs/0000017f-e664-dc7e-adff-f6ed4fd80000">sought to have the refugees resettled</a> far away. Meanwhile, a narrative <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221132878">emerged in the West in the 1950s claiming</a> that Palestinians’ political claims were invalid. </p>
<h2>Future vision</h2>
<p>Palestinians had to find a way to both assert their national rights and lay out an alternative vision for peace. After Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the call for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” started to <a href="https://online-ucpress-edu.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/jps/article-abstract/9/4/17/54721/The-Passions-of-Exile-The-Palestine-Congress-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext">gain traction</a> among those who believed that all the land should be returned to the Palestinians.</p>
<p>But it soon also came to represent the vision of a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2537386.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A1dc8c4f42d4cfd47756d3adb211ccd9a&ab_segments=&origin=&initiator=&acceptTC=1">secular democratic state</a> with equality for all. </p>
<p>In 1969, the Palestinian National Council, the highest decision-making body of the Palestinians in exile, <a href="https://www.palquest.org/en/historictext/16209/palestine-national-council-6th-session-political-statement">formally called for</a> a “Palestinian democratic state” that would be “free of all forms of religious and social discrimination.”</p>
<p>This remained a popular vision among Palestinians, even as some of their leaders inched toward the idea of establishing a truncated Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. </p>
<p>Many Palestinians were skeptical of this two-state solution. For refugees exiled since 1948, a two-state solution would not allow them to return to their towns and villages in Israel. Some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9780520385634-014">Palestinian citizens of Israel feared</a> that a two-state solution would leave them even more isolated as an Arab minority in a Jewish state.</p>
<p>Even Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip – those who stood the most to gain from a two-state solution – were lukewarm to the idea. A 1986 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4327683?seq=10">poll found</a> that 78% of respondents “supported the establishment of a democratic-secular Palestinian state encompassing all of Palestine,” while only 17% supported two states.</p>
<p>That helps explains why the call for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” became popular in the <a href="https://justvision.org/nailaandtheuprising">protest chants</a> of the First Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, from 1987 to 1992.</p>
<p>Notably, Hamas, an Islamist party founded in 1987, did not initially use “from the river to the sea,” likely due to the phrase’s long-standing ties to Palestinian secular nationalism. </p>
<h2>Two states or one?</h2>
<p>The 1993 signing of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/30-years-after-arafat-rabin-handshake-clear-flaws-in-oslo-accords-doomed-peace-talks-to-failure-211362">Oslo Accords</a> led many to believe that a two-state solution was just around the corner. </p>
<p>But as hopes for a two-state solution dimmed, some Palestinians returned to the idea of a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/magazine/the-one-state-solution.html">single, democratic state</a> from the river to the sea. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Hamas picked up the slogan, adding the phrase “from the river to the sea” to its 2017 <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full">revised charter</a>. The language was part of Hamas’ broader <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752742/decolonizing-palestine/">efforts</a> to gain legitimacy at the expense of its secular rival, Fatah, which was seen by many as having failed the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>Today, broad swaths of Palestinians still favor the idea of equality. A 2022 poll found <a href="https://themedialine.org/by-region/palestinian-support-for-a-one-state-solution-is-highest-since-last-years-violence/">strong support</a> among Palestinians for the idea of a single state with equal rights for all. </p>
<h2>Offensive phrase?</h2>
<p>Perhaps colored by Hamas’ use of the phrase, some <a href="https://uncertain.substack.com/p/israel-hamas-river-sea">have claimed</a> it is a genocidal call – the implication being that the slogan’s end is calling for Palestine to be “free from Jews.” It’s understandable where such fears come from, given the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that killed <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/11/1212458974/israel-revises-death-toll-hamas-attacks-oct-7">1,200 people</a>, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.</p>
<p>But the Arabic original, “Filastin hurra,” means liberated Palestine. “Free from” would be a different Arabic word altogether. </p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/From-the-River-to-the-Sea">critics of the slogan insist</a> that by denying Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, the phrase itself is antisemitic. Under such thinking, protesters should instead be calling for a Palestinian state that exists alongside Israel – and not one that replaces it.</p>
<p>But this would seemingly ignore the current reality. There is <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/israel-palestine-one-state-solution">strong scholarly consensus</a> that a two-state solution is no longer viable. They argue that the extent of settlement building in the West Bank and the economic conditions in Gaza have eaten away at the cohesion and viability of any envisioned Palestinian state.</p>
<h2>Further demonization</h2>
<p>There is another argument against the slogan’s use: That while not antisemitic in itself, the fact that some Jewish people see it that way – and as such see it as a threat – is enough for people to abandon its use.</p>
<p>But such an argument would, I contend, privilege the feelings of one group over that of another. And it risks further <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-islamophobia-and-anti-palestinian-racism-are-manufactured-through-disinformation-216119">demonizing</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/5/13/social-media-companies-are-trying-to-silence-palestinian-voices">silencing</a> Palestinian voices in the West.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a black and white scarf speaks into a microphone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559743/original/file-20231115-15-vqxv2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559743/original/file-20231115-15-vqxv2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559743/original/file-20231115-15-vqxv2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559743/original/file-20231115-15-vqxv2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559743/original/file-20231115-15-vqxv2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559743/original/file-20231115-15-vqxv2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559743/original/file-20231115-15-vqxv2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., speaks during a demonstration calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Election2024MichiganTlaib/e0a47d188079478ea61d918f8d72eabb/photo?Query=from%20river%20to%20sea&mediaType=photo,video,graphic,audio&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=478&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the last month, Europe has seen what pro-Palestine advocates describe as an “<a href="https://time.com/6326360/europe-palestine-protests-free-speech/">unprecedented crackdown</a>” on their activism. Meanwhile, people across the U.S. are reporting widespread <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2023/11/14/letter-to-workplace-leaders-protect-against-anti-palestinian-anti-arab-and-anti-muslim-discrimination">discrimination</a>, <a href="https://prismreports.org/2023/11/13/workers-retaliation-supporting-palestine/">retaliation</a> and <a href="https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2023/11/15/to-shut-us-down-you-have-only-made-us-stronger-hundreds-of-students-faculty-protest-suspension-of-sjp-jvp/">punishment</a> for their pro-Palestinian views.</p>
<p>On Nov. 14, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/11/14/gwu-images-palestinian-students-for-justice/">George Washington University suspended</a> the student group Students for Justice in Palestine, in part because the group projected the slogan “Free Palestine From the River to the Sea” on the campus library.</p>
<h2>Principle, not platform</h2>
<p>None of this is to say that the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” doesn’t have multiple interpretations.</p>
<p>Palestinians themselves are divided over the specific political outcome they wish to see in their homeland.</p>
<p>But that misses the point. Most Palestinians using this chant do not see it as advocating for a specific political platform or as belonging to a specific political group. Rather, the majority of people using the phrase see it as a principled vision of freedom and coexistence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maha Nassar has previously received funding from the Foundation for Middle East Peace.</span></em></p>The slogan has been attacked as ‘antisemitic’ and defended as a ‘call for freedom.’ Behind the controversy is decades of usage.Maha Nassar, Associate Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178082023-11-15T08:14:56Z2023-11-15T08:14:56ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: James Paterson on the High Court’s decision on detention and rising anti-Semitism<p>Last week the High Court ruled that holding high-risk asylum seekers in indefinite detention was unconstitutional. As a consequence of the court decision, more than 80 people, some of whom were convicted of serious crimes including murder and rape, have been released. The government will rush in legislation on Thursday to deal with the fallout.</p>
<p>In this podcast, Liberal senator and Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security James Paterson joins The Conversation to discuss the High Court’s ruling, his concerns about increasing anti-Semitism across the country, the rising cyber risks, and Australia’s future relations with China.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In this podcast, Liberal Senator James Paterson joins The Conversation to discuss the High Court's ruling, his concerns about rising anti-Semitism, rising cyber risks, and Australia's future relations with ChinaMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2175352023-11-13T22:30:02Z2023-11-13T22:30:02Z‘We remain afraid of the future’ – how Palestinian children’s optimism was fading even before this crisis<p>In October alone, more children were reported to have died in Gaza than the total number of children <a href="https://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-3195-children-killed-three-weeks-surpasses-annual-number-children-killed-conflict-zones">killed annually</a> in all other conflicts since 2019. The awful statistic led to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres calling Gaza a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/06/gaza-becoming-a-graveyard-for-children-says-un-secretary-general">graveyard for children</a>”.</p>
<p>Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the humanitarian catastrophe has been unprecedented in scale and scope. While not as acute in <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-31-enarhe">East Jerusalem and the West Bank</a>, the impact on young people in those territories has also been severe.</p>
<p>Scores of schools have been shut due to security concerns, and movement between towns is significantly limited. Violence between Israeli settlers and the Palestinian population has increased, with little apparent intervention by the Israeli military or government.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/children-trapped-gaza-conflict-face-generational-trauma">UNICEF briefing</a> to the UN Security Council, the recent escalation could lead to “trauma which could last a lifetime” for children in both Palestine and Israel. Even before this crisis, however, the toll of the protracted conflict on Palestinian children has been clear.</p>
<p>Over the four years between 2019 and 2022, I led a <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/learning-margins-assessment-learner-and-educator-well-being-outcomes-midst-and-following-contagion-and-conflict-palestine-january-2023">study exploring children’s wellbeing</a> in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. </p>
<p>Conducted in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council, we surveyed approximately 800 children and their teachers. The trends we observed were cause for grave concern – even before events of the past month.</p>
<h2>‘Insecure all the time’</h2>
<p>The children we surveyed in Gaza had lived through at least three large-scale Israeli military operations in their lifetimes. Due to Israel’s longstanding blockade of the territory, they have grown up with food insecurity and unreliable supplies of electricity and drinking water.</p>
<p>With most of their caregivers unemployed, many children are vulnerable to poor living conditions, as well as violence within the home.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-rule-of-proportionality-and-is-it-being-observed-in-the-israeli-siege-of-gaza-217321">What is the rule of proportionality, and is it being observed in the Israeli siege of Gaza?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite this, the children of Gaza we surveyed in 2019 showed tremendous resilience: 80% felt things would be better in the future. For many, attending and succeeding in school offered the hope of finding a way out of their circumstances.</p>
<p>By 2022, however, the situation had changed markedly. COVID-19 lockdowns, followed by a <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-covid-19-and-the-latest-violence-what-now-for-the-school-children-of-palestine-161496">major escalation in violence</a> in the spring of 2021 just as students returned to school full time, saw only 20% positive about their future.</p>
<p>Such circumstances had deflated their capacity to aspire, hope and dream of a better tomorrow. As one group of boys described in a story they wrote together: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We remain afraid of the future, and not trusting it will bring us any more hope. We can’t forget the events we have been through and feel insecure all the time.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Pandemic respite</h2>
<p>Our research suggests the same is true for children in parts of the West Bank which face the ongoing presence of Israeli settlers and military in their communities.</p>
<p>Children surveyed in the part of Hebron under Israeli military control (Hebron H2), and in East Jerusalem, face daily restrictions as they travel to and from school. Many need to pass through <a href="https://www.warchildholland.org/news/education-threat-west-bank/#:%7E:text=In%20the%20West%20Bank%20education,classes%20or%20after%2Dschool%20activities">military checkpoints</a> where they face delays and harassment.</p>
<p>For these children, the pandemic offered a kind of respite from having to make these daily journeys. One group of girls living in Hebron H2 wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The streets were calm and quiet, and there was not the usual conflict between us and the soldiers.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-conflict-what-gaza-might-look-like-the-day-after-the-war-217323">Israel-Hamas conflict: what Gaza might look like 'the day after' the war</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Schools reopened after the pandemic at the same time as <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/2022-among-deadliest-years-palestinians-west-bank-middle-east-peace-process-coordinator-tells-security-council">tension and violence mounted</a> across the West Bank over the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements on seized Palestinian land. Attacks in and around schools increased, as did Palestinian casualties.</p>
<p>For the most acutely affected areas, our survey recorded significant declines in children’s wellbeing, particularly in their ability to calm themselves when scared, and to think of solutions to daily challenges they faced. One group of girls at a school outside Jerusalem wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whenever there are incidences, we have strikes which close our school again and return us to learning from home which we don’t like. We are frustrated, depressed, and [made] angry by the situation.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/international-reaction-to-gaza-siege-has-exposed-the-growing-rift-between-the-west-and-the-global-south-216938">International reaction to Gaza siege has exposed the growing rift between the West and the Global South</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Frustration and escalation</h2>
<p>Pressure is now mounting for a ceasefire to end this latest cycle of violence. If and when this happens, humanitarian organisations and donors will flood back in to restore, repair and attempt to remediate the physical and psychological damage.</p>
<p>But if the root causes and drivers of the Israel-Palestine conflict remain unaddressed, and if there is no greater international resolve to change the status quo once and for all, it seems inevitable we will witness more bloodshed and suffering.</p>
<p>Children on both sides of the conflict deserve a durable and lasting solution. Our survey suggests their resilience was already seriously declining before the current emergency. Without hope, this will deteriorate even further. As one school principal told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We feel trapped by the situation we are in, and the violence just escalates out of frustration.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ritesh Shah received funding from the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations for this research.</span></em></p>A four-year survey of Palestinian school children in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem found hope and wellbeing already seriously declining. The situation now can only make it worse.Ritesh Shah, Senior Lecturer in Education, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2161422023-11-01T14:00:17Z2023-11-01T14:00:17ZGaza bombing adds to the generations of Palestinians displaced from their homes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556655/original/file-20231030-29-emhiqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C20%2C6689%2C4446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children sitting near their home at al-Shati camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on June 20, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-carries-a-young-child-near-their-home-at-al-shati-camp-news-photo/1221111213?adppopup=true">Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-16">estimated 1.4 million Palestinians</a> have been displaced from their homes since the Israeli military <a href="https://apnews.com/world-news/mapping-out-the-israel-hamas-war-0000018b286cd98aa18bea7efbdb0000">began bombing the Gaza Strip</a> on Oct. 8, 2023, in retaliation for a surprise attack by Hamas militants. Many of these Palestinians have sought refuge in United Nations emergency shelters in a situation <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/21-10-2023-joint-statement-by-undp--unfpa--unicef--wfp-and-who-on-humanitarian-supplies-crossing-into-gaza">the World Health Organization has described as “catastrophic</a>.” </p>
<p>With shelters running out of adequate access to water, food, electricity and other critical supplies, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142652">humanitarian agencies are deeply concerned</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/29/palestinians-break-into-gaza-un-aid-warehouses-in-a-sign-of-desperation">fear a total breakdown in order</a>. </p>
<p>While the current refugee crisis in Gaza has raised global concern over Palestinian displacement, this is not the first time Palestinians have endured the hardships of forced migration. Long before the latest upheaval, <a href="https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/22188/palestinian-refugees-gaza-strip-1948-1967">Palestinians who today live in Gaza</a> and <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work">throughout the Middle East</a> were forced from or fled their homes in what became the state of Israel. Today, they number about <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/palestinian-refugees-dispossession#">5.9 million refugees</a>, <a href="https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/Press_En_InterPopDay2022E.pdf">almost half of the entire global Palestinian population</a>.</p>
<p>Over the past 20 years, <a href="https://www.memphis.edu/anthropology/people/michael_perez.php">my research</a> as an anthropologist has focused on the situation of Palestinian displacement in the Middle East. Having studied some of the daunting challenges millions of Palestinians face as stateless refugees denied the ability to <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/content/resolution-194">return to their homeland or the right of compensation</a>, I believe it is critical to understand their history and what is at stake for those trapped in indefinite exile. </p>
<h2>Fear, violence and exodus: the Nakba of 1948</h2>
<p>The majority of Palestinian refugees today receive aid from the <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/">United Nations Relief and Works Agency</a>, or UNRWA. Dispersed throughout the region, including in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/">occupied Palestinian territories</a>, about <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees">one-third of all Palestinian refugees live in UNRWA refugee camps</a>, while the remainder live in surrounding cities and towns. </p>
<p>The origins of Palestinian displacement are ongoing and cannot be reduced to a single cause. Most Palestinian refugees, however, can trace their roots to two significant events in Palestinian history: The “Nakba” and the “Naksa.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556658/original/file-20231030-29-v96jhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large number of people, some holding their luggage, as they try to flee." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556658/original/file-20231030-29-v96jhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556658/original/file-20231030-29-v96jhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556658/original/file-20231030-29-v96jhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556658/original/file-20231030-29-v96jhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556658/original/file-20231030-29-v96jhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556658/original/file-20231030-29-v96jhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556658/original/file-20231030-29-v96jhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as Al Nakba, or the ‘catastrophe.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-1948-palestinian-exodus-known-in-arabic-as-the-nakba-news-photo/1354487454?adppopup=true">History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=u5oHFei_GuMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">principal event in modern Palestinian history and memory</a> is the Nakba, or what is roughly translated into <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/">the “catastrophe</a>.” The term refers to the mass displacement of <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/05/1136662">approximately 700,000 Palestinians</a> during the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=oi8cmbTa6qMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=palestine+war+history&ots=pCKeM1Nzzj&sig=2lbV5e979b4VYA_-NqOhcfNXdPQ#v=onepage&q=palestine%20war%20history&f=false">Arab-Israeli War of 1948</a> and the <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-189917/">creation of the state of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>The majority of Palestine’s Arab population fled their homes during the war, seeking temporary refuge across the Middle East but <a href="https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/E147494750800019X">hoping to return</a> after hostilities ceased. </p>
<p>The mass exodus of Palestinians in 1948 resulted in two realities that have marked the region since. The first involved about <a href="https://cris.huji.ac.il/en/publications/the-state-of-israel-versus-the-palestinian-internal-refugees">25,000 Palestinians displaced within the boundaries of what became Israel</a>. Known as <a href="https://mada-research.org/storage/uploads/2020/06/english.indd_.pdf#page=26">internally displaced Palestinians</a>, this community did not cross any official border and thus never received refugee status under international law. Instead, they became Israeli citizens, distinguished by their legal designation in Israel as “<a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1648031">present absentees</a>.”</p>
<p>Through the <a href="https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/article/how-israel-applies-absentees-property-law-confiscate-palestinian-property-jerusalem">Absentee Property Law</a> the Israeli state proceeded <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-absentees-property-law-eviction-homes-explained">to confiscate displaced Palestinians’ properties</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2022/02/qa-israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-cruel-system-of-domination-and-crime-against-humanity/">deny their right to return to the homes and villages of their birth</a>.</p>
<p>The second event involved over 700,000 Palestinians who fled beyond what became the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567">de facto borders of Israel</a> and <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/who-we-are">acquired formal refugee status under the United Nations</a>. This group of refugees sought shelter in <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/atlas2019/">areas of Palestine unconquered by Jewish forces</a>, like Nablus and Jenin, and in neighboring states, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon <a href="https://www.fmreview.org/sustainable-livelihoods/elabed">and Egypt</a>. </p>
<p>Immediately following their displacement, these Palestinians were subject to ad hoc support from <a href="https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/216">various international organizations</a> until <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/content/general-assembly-resolution-302">the 1949 creation of the UNRWA</a>, which assumed official responsibility for the management of direct relief operations and <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work">refugee camp infrastructure throughout the Middle East</a>. </p>
<p>In addition to providing education, health care and other services, including microfinancing and jobs training, the UNRWA has been supporting refugee camp improvement projects through <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do/improving-conditions?program=42">road construction and home rehabilitation in the camps</a>. </p>
<h2>Refugees in Jordan, Egypt and Syria: the Naksa of 1967</h2>
<p>The second-largest displacement of Palestinians occurred in 1967 during <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/6/4/the-naksa-how-israel-occupied-the-whole-of-palestine-in-1967">the Israel-Arab war known to Palestinians as Al Naksa</a> or the “setback.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556661/original/file-20231030-19-ylyj2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young barber getting a young child seated on a chair while several others wait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556661/original/file-20231030-19-ylyj2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556661/original/file-20231030-19-ylyj2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556661/original/file-20231030-19-ylyj2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556661/original/file-20231030-19-ylyj2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556661/original/file-20231030-19-ylyj2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556661/original/file-20231030-19-ylyj2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556661/original/file-20231030-19-ylyj2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A local barbershop inside Al-Wehdat Palestinian refugee camp in Amman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/local-barber-shop-inside-al-wehdat-palestinian-refugee-camp-news-photo/1093054342?adppopup=true">Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fought between Israel on one side and Syria, Egypt and Jordan on the other, the war ended with <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/1967/wDhYMiAnidAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1967+war+israel&printsec=frontcover">Israel occupying territory in all three countries</a>, including the remaining areas of Palestine: the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During the war, approximately <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/jordan">400,000 Palestinians were displaced from the West Bank and Gaza primarily to Jordan</a> and housed in one of six new UNRWA refugee camps. </p>
<p>Others found refuge in Egypt and Syria. More than a third of those Palestinians displaced in 1967 were already refugees from 1948 and thus suffered a second forced migration. Just as in 1948, when the 1967 war ended, the <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/jps/article-abstract/36/3/6/53874/The-June-1967-War-and-the-Palestinian-Refugee">Israeli government blocked the return of any refugees</a> and proceeded to destroy several Palestinian villages in the occupied territory, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203061428/israel-west-bank-international-law-allan-gerson">including Emmaus, Yula and Beit Yuba</a>. After their destruction, these areas were leased to Jewish Israelis. </p>
<h2>Beyond Al-Nakba and Al-Naksa</h2>
<p>Although the tragedies of the Nakba and the Naksa turned the vast majority of Palestinians into refugees, numerous events since then have increased their number. One of the most significant causes of Palestinian displacement today is the Israeli practice of home demolitions. </p>
<p>Whether as a punitive measure or the result of a permit system that rights groups say <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/">systematically discriminates against Palestinians</a>, between <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/data/demolition">2009 and 2023</a> the practice destroyed over 9,000 homes and left approximately 14,000 Palestinians homeless. </p>
<p>The further displacement of Palestinians has also resulted from regional wars involving neither Palestinians nor Israelis. Following the end of Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in 1990, <a href="https://www.badil.org/publications/al-majdal/issues/items/1355.html">over 300,000 Palestinians were expelled from Kuwait in</a> retaliation for support offered by the leading Palestinian national organization, the <a href="http://palestineun.org/about-palestine/palestine-liberation-organization/">Palestine Liberation Organization</a>, to Saddam Hussein. </p>
<p>Since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/syria">over 120,000 Palestinian refugees have fled the country</a>, primarily to Turkey and Jordan, while another 200,000 have been internally displaced. More recently, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/projects/israel-hamas-war/">the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip</a> has already internally <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142687">displaced over 1.4 million Palestinians</a>.</p>
<h2>Many refugees, many exiles</h2>
<p>Because Palestinians live under various governments in <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2538257">diverse circumstances</a>, no single experience can account for their experience of exile. In Jordan, for example, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642987.2010.482911">where I have conducted research</a>, Palestinian refugees can be divided into numerous groups, each with its own set of opportunities and challenges.</p>
<p>There are Palestinians displaced in 1948 <a href="http://www.alawdaeu.prc.org.uk/index.php/en/palestine/refugees/582-">who became citizens</a> of Jordan but depend on UNRWA for basic services like education and health care. There are also <a href="https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/facpubs/169/">refugees displaced from the Gaza Strip in 1967</a> who lack citizenship and are thus deprived of certain civil and political rights. More recently, there are <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2013/07/a-dog-has-more-freedom-palestinians-at-cyber-city-camp-for-refugees-from-syria/">Palestinians displaced from Syria</a> for whom movement and work opportunities have been severely restricted in Jordan.</p>
<p>Palestinians living beyond Jordan also face distinct circumstances. In the West Bank, <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/west-bank">approximately 900,000 Palestinian refugees</a> live under Israeli occupation, subject to a discriminatory system that <a href="https://www.btselem.org/apartheid">human rights organizations have called “apartheid</a>.” </p>
<p>Palestinian refugees in the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-power-gazas-islamist-secularist-democratic-authoritarians">Hamas-ruled</a> Gaza Strip, <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/gaza-strip">who today number around one-and-a-half million</a>, are currently living under a 16-year blockade established by Israel but supported by the Egyptian government. Since the closure began in 2007, restrictions on the import of goods, the movement of people and access to basic resources like electricity have produced dire conditions for Palestinians, including over <a href="https://unctad.org/press-material/prior-current-crisis-decades-long-blockade-hollowed-gazas-economy-leaving-80">45% unemployment</a> and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/2021-gaza-emergency-food-security-assessment-following">food insecurity among 70% of households</a>. </p>
<p>Since 1948, Palestinians in Lebanon <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/mde180052006en.pdf">have faced severe restrictions</a> in work, education and health. Treated as an unwanted population in the country, their presence has been a source of significant divisions in Lebanon and a factor in numerous conflicts, including the Lebanese Civil War and the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003211709-16/palestinians-lebanon-status-ambiguity-insecurity-flux-rosemary-sayigh">War of Camps</a> between Syrian-backed militias and factions within the Palestinian Liberation Organization. </p>
<h2>Permanent exile or return?</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556665/original/file-20231030-29-cj72h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Families, holding children in their arms, leave areas near the fighting in Gaza." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556665/original/file-20231030-29-cj72h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556665/original/file-20231030-29-cj72h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556665/original/file-20231030-29-cj72h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556665/original/file-20231030-29-cj72h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556665/original/file-20231030-29-cj72h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556665/original/file-20231030-29-cj72h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556665/original/file-20231030-29-cj72h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinian families leave areas in Gaza on Oct. 24, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-with-kids-leave-the-area-for-safer-spots-as-news-photo/1742046372?adppopup=true">Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Palestinian refugees represent <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/05/1136662">the longest protracted refugee situation</a> in modern history. For 75 years now, they have been forced to live as a <a href="https://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/palestine/shiblak.pdf">stateless population</a> without the ability to return to their homeland. </p>
<p>The duration of their predicament is undoubtedly tied to the uniqueness of their displacement. Palestinians fled a homeland that became the state of another population, in this case Jewish, whose leaders <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2019/05/israels-refusal-to-grant-palestinian-refugees-right-to-return-has-fuelled-seven-decades-of-suffering/">treat the return of Palestinians as a demographic threat</a>. </p>
<p>Any solution to Palestinian displacement that involves returning to territory in contemporary Israel thus faces the problem of overcoming the idea of Israel as an exclusively Jewish state. And yet that is the challenge. Whatever peace negotiations may bring, no permanent solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2023/06/right-return-palestinian-refugees-must-be-prioritised-over-political">can avoid answering the question of return</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Vicente Perez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar who has studied Palestinian refugees for 20 years explains the history of their displacement and the stakes involved for those living in an indefinite exile.Michael Vicente Perez, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2161852023-10-25T15:43:24Z2023-10-25T15:43:24ZIsrael-Hamas war: six key moments for the Gaza Strip<p>Once again, the Gaza Strip is at the epicentre of violence in the Middle East. This tiny 41km-by-13km band of territory on the Mediterranean, sandwiched between the often hostile neighbours of Israel and Egypt, has faced repeated rounds of violence in recent history – but the current war is the deadliest by a long way. More than <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-18">5,700 people in Gaza</a> have been reportedly killed by Israeli airstrikes in two weeks of relentless bombardment – <a href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/2055_palestinian_children_killed_in_gaza_more_than_800_missing">at least 2,000</a> of whom are children. </p>
<p>The aerial assault on Gaza has followed <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-hamas-attack-and-why-now-what-does-it-hope-to-gain-215248">Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel</a> on October 7, in which it crossed the Gaza border in several places, attacked towns and settlements, and killed <a href="https://ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-16">around 1,400</a>, people, mainly civilians – including an unspecified number of children. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-it-has-confirmed-212-people-held-hostage-gaza-2023-10-22/">More than 200</a> more people, including women, children and elderly people, were seized and taken into Gaza.</p>
<p>Analysts are now warning of the danger of a full regional war, which could <a href="https://www.mei.edu/publications/irans-calculations-israel-hamas-war">involve Iran</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/hezbollah-alone-will-decide-whether-lebanon-already-on-the-brink-of-collapse-gets-dragged-into-israel-hamas-war-212078#:%7E:text=But%20whether%20Lebanon%20becomes%20a,Hezbollah's%20military%20hegemony%20in%20Lebanon.">Lebanon</a> as well.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555598/original/file-20231024-21-fx5ruz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="UN map of the Gaza Strip with associated statistics." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555598/original/file-20231024-21-fx5ruz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555598/original/file-20231024-21-fx5ruz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555598/original/file-20231024-21-fx5ruz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555598/original/file-20231024-21-fx5ruz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555598/original/file-20231024-21-fx5ruz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555598/original/file-20231024-21-fx5ruz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555598/original/file-20231024-21-fx5ruz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The world’s largest open-air prison’: the Gaza Strip at September 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ocha</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How has such a <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/gaza-strip-size-compared-world-cities-maps-1835267">tiny strip of land</a> – less than half the size of Berlin – become so critical to the politics of an entire region? Over the past 75 years, the Gaza Strip has frequently been the focal point of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Here are six key moments that led up to the current crisis:</p>
<h2>1. 1948: Palestinian dispossession</h2>
<p>In 1948, <a href="https://imeu.org/article/quick-facts-the-palestinian-nakba">the state of Israel was established</a>. While the United Nations had recommended the previous year that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine#/media/File:UN_Palestine_Partition_Versions_1947.jpg">55% of Palestine be designated for a Jewish state</a> – causing controversy as only a third of the population of Palestine was Jewish at the time – Zionist militias and the Israeli army ultimately took 78%, displacing and expelling large numbers of Palestinians. After Jewish Agency leader David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of Israel on May 14, neighbouring Arab states refused to recognise the new state and instead declared war on it in solidarity with the Palestinians.</p>
<p>In 1949, Israel signed armistices <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/686123?ln=en">agreeing its borders</a> with neighbouring Arab states. By this time, more than 750,000 Palestinians – around three-quarters of the population – had been turned into refugees. Their dispossession became known in Arabic as the <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/"><em>Nakba</em></a> (catastrophe). Many refugees fled to the two parts of Palestine not absorbed by Israel: the West Bank (which was subsequently annexed by Jordan in 1950) and the Gaza Strip (which came under Egyptian control).</p>
<p>The Nakba transformed the entire Middle East, but it had the biggest demographic impact on the Gaza Strip. A tiny area of land with a population of <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Gaza/4fhzBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=filiu+gaza+a+history&printsec=frontcover">around 80,000 absorbed more than 200,000 refugees</a>. The Strip’s famously dense population today can be traced directly to the dispossession of 1948.</p>
<h2>2. 1956: First Israeli occupation of Gaza</h2>
<p>As Gaza was administered by Egypt after 1948, it became a key battleground in the <a href="https://history.blog.gov.uk/2016/07/26/whats-the-context-26-july-1956-nasser-announces-the-nationalisation-of-the-suez-canal/">1956 Suez crisis</a>. After Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, Britain, France and Israel launched an attack on Egypt. As part of this, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211102-suez-crisis-triggered-israel-s-first-occupation-of-gaza">Israel occupied Gaza</a> with evidence of plans for long-term occupation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crippled tank with other damaged military vehicles." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555595/original/file-20231024-15-uocdqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555595/original/file-20231024-15-uocdqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555595/original/file-20231024-15-uocdqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555595/original/file-20231024-15-uocdqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555595/original/file-20231024-15-uocdqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555595/original/file-20231024-15-uocdqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555595/original/file-20231024-15-uocdqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crippled Israeli tank in the Sinai, destroyed during the Suez crisis, 1956.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">US Army Heritage & Education Center/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the event, due to US intervention, Israel and its allies were defeated and Washington forced Israel to withdraw its troops early in 1957. But this would not be the last time it occupied the Strip.</p>
<h2>3. 1967: Israel begins long-term occupation of Gaza and the West Bank</h2>
<p>Over six days of war in June 1967, Israel defeated the Arab coalition of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. It captured the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and the Sinai desert from Egypt. This began its long-term military occupation of the two parts of Palestine not taken in 1948: the West Bank and Gaza Strip. </p>
<p>As Gaza had a reputation for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/weekinreview/17smith.1.html">being more “radical”</a> than the West Bank – due to its poverty levels and high proportion of refugees – Israel targeted it for <a href="https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/21232/israel%E2%80%99s-policy-toward-refugees-gaza-strip">further population dispersal and displacement</a>. During the 1970s, it deployed a combination of carrot and stick measures designed to compel Palestinians to leave Gaza for the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan, and even the Americas. </p>
<p>Successive Israeli governments also moved their own citizens into illegal settlements in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Ariel Sharon’s government would eventually <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2019/08/israel-gaza-strip-disengagement-2005-ariel-sharon-hamas.html">withdraw all 21 settlements</a> in 2005, but Israel <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-205755/">retained control over the Strip’s land, sea and air borders</a>.</p>
<h2>4. 1987: First intifada begins</h2>
<p>In December 1987, an Israeli army truck crashed into a car in Gaza, killing four Palestinians. The incident sparked the beginning of the <a href="https://www.makan.org.uk/glossary/first_intifada/">first intifada</a> (uprising), which would eventually spread across the whole of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Palestinian youths making street barricades in Gaza during the first intifada 19087 to 1993" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555599/original/file-20231024-19-kt1nqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555599/original/file-20231024-19-kt1nqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555599/original/file-20231024-19-kt1nqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555599/original/file-20231024-19-kt1nqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555599/original/file-20231024-19-kt1nqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555599/original/file-20231024-19-kt1nqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555599/original/file-20231024-19-kt1nqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unrest: the first intifada in Gaza, 1987 to 1993.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abarrategi/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Palestinians in both occupied territories <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/uncategorized/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-1987-intifada/">boycotted Israeli goods, refused to pay taxes, and withdrew their labour from Israeli employers</a>. There was also widespread stone-throwing at Israeli army vehicles and soldiers. </p>
<p>The intifada shook up longstanding Israeli assumptions that most Palestinians were passive in the face of the occupation, and is credited as a key factor in forcing negotiations in the early 1990s.</p>
<h2>5. 1994: Yasser Arafat sets up the Palestinian Authority in Gaza</h2>
<p>From 1993-95, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, signed the <a href="https://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Essfc0005/The%20Rise%20and%20Fall%20of%20the%20Oslo%20Peace%20Process.html">Oslo Accords</a>, a set of agreements designed to pave the way for a full peace deal. Oslo allowed for limited Palestinian autonomy in parts of the occupied territories. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Israeli prime minister Yitshak Rabin shakes hands with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as US president Bill Clinton looks on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555596/original/file-20231024-19-gf3i3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555596/original/file-20231024-19-gf3i3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555596/original/file-20231024-19-gf3i3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555596/original/file-20231024-19-gf3i3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555596/original/file-20231024-19-gf3i3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555596/original/file-20231024-19-gf3i3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555596/original/file-20231024-19-gf3i3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1993 Oslo Accords, signed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, paved the way for the establishment of a Palestinian Authority in Gaza.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vince Musi/The White House/WIkimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1994, Arafat was instrumental in establishing the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Gaza City, from which Israeli forces partially withdrew. While this was <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/13/oslo-accords-1993-anniversary-israel-palestine-peace-process-lessons/">intended as a five-year interim agreement</a> ahead of final negotiations between the PA and Israel, it would last much longer than this in reality. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-oslo-accords-a-new-podcast-series-marks-30-years-since-israel-palestine-secret-peace-negotiations-212985">Inside the Oslo accords: a new podcast series marks 30 years since Israel-Palestine secret peace negotiations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>6. 2007: Hamas takes power in Gaza</h2>
<p>As many Palestinians became increasingly disenchanted with the PA’s corrupt and ineffectual leadership, <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a> gained prominence as a rival to Arafat’s Fatah party. </p>
<p>Again, the Gaza Strip was at the centre of this. In 2006, Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections, taking <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090404002945/http://www.elections.ps/template.aspx?id=291">44% of the vote</a>. The result was <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/04/27/biden-2006-elections-in-gaza/">rejected by the US</a> and much of the western world, which backed the Fatah-led PA. </p>
<p>Following intra-Palestinian fighting in 2007, Hamas took full control of the Strip. In response, Israel <a href="https://visualizingpalestine.org/visuals/gaza-closure">imposed a blockade on it</a>, ramping up measures that had first been imposed at the end of the first intifada. Egypt largely supported the blockade, meaning that Gaza’s people were hemmed into a tiny stretch of land, with a dying economy and no access to the outer world.</p>
<p>Since then, Palestinians in Gaza have faced continual violence, with particularly intensive Israeli bombing campaigns in <a href="https://imeu.org/article/operation-cast-lead">2008-9</a>, <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20130509_pillar_of_defense_report">2012</a>, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/gaza-operation-protective-edge">2014</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22440330/israel-palestine-gaza-airstrikes-hamas-updates-2021">2021</a>, as well as rockets launched by Gaza militias into Israel. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20415675">the current war</a> has already exceeded all of them in bloodshed, meaning that Gaza unfortunately looks set to retain its place at the heart of the region’s violence and displacement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216185/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Irfan receives funding from the British Academy</span></em></p>Dates that changed the course of history in what has been called ‘the world’s largest open-air prison’.Anne Irfan, Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Race, Gender and Postcolonial Studies, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2159532023-10-24T12:42:44Z2023-10-24T12:42:44ZIsrael-Hamas conflict: what young Palestinians think about four key issues that affect their lives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555581/original/file-20231024-23-cjoxyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C3000%2C1868&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the eighth day of the current intensification of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, I <a href="https://twitter.com/thebrownhijabi/status/1713680480199983137">saw a tweet</a> that said that there would be more uproar in the west if “2.2 million golden retrievers [were] being bombed to extinction in an inescapable cage” instead of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. </p>
<p>This tweet took me back to <a href="https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/487882960/The_occupation_wants_to_delete_us.pdf">interviews I conducted with 96 young Palestinians</a> and their teachers in the West Bank in the aftermath of the 2014 invasion of Gaza and published in a journal recently. We talked about issues that affected their daily lives, not least their awareness of human rights as well as how the rest of the world perceives the Palestinians’ struggle.</p>
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<p>I wanted to find out about the different ways Palestinian youth in grades nine and ten (aged 13-15) across a range of public, private and United Nations schools understood, talked about and used human rights – especially when the ideals they learned about at school contrasted with their struggles for rights in their daily life. In my conversations with these young people, they opened up to me about a range of issues that they confront in their daily life.</p>
<h2>1. Dehumanisation of Palestinians</h2>
<p>The young people I spoke with, who were from a range of different socioeconomic and religious backgrounds, often described how they felt dehumanised in discourse on Israel-Palestine relations. This failure to see them as fellow humans with the same wants, needs and – importantly – human rights as every one else, they felt, has come to be accepted globally. </p>
<p>But they also often used similar language to describe how they live under occupation. Hiba, a girl in grade nine studying at a private school joked that: “It’s funny how animals have more rights than the humans in Palestine”. Then, more seriously, she added: “We’re not equal, we are different from other children in the world.” </p>
<p>The idea that the value of a Palestinian life is ranked lower than the lives of others was another talking point. Anwar, a grade nine female refugee student at a school run by the UN said that: “In western countries if someone dies they make a massive issue of it. But if we Palestinians were killed whether it was 100 to 1,000, then it’s normal and OK. Palestinians are numbers.”</p>
<p>The rhetoric displayed by Israeli officials over the past fortnight shows this dehumanisation at work. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant in announcing the complete siege of Gaza <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/israel-defence-minister-human-animals-gaza-palestine_uk_65245ebae4b0a32c15bfe6b6">asserted that</a>: “We are fighting human animals.” His words were <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/cogat-chief-addresses-gazans-you-wanted-hell-you-will-get-hell/">echoed by Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian</a> who said to Palestinians in Gaza that “human animals must be treated as such”.</p>
<p>Scholars have shown in the past how this sort of dehumanising rhetoric <a href="https://opiniojuris.org/2023/10/18/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/">often precedes acts of genocide</a>. </p>
<h2>2. Their parents’ and leaders’ generation</h2>
<p>Many of the young people I spoke to were critical of how their elders – especially the leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA) – appeared to have come to accept the occupation. Talking about the 2014 war in Gaza, Camilla, who was studying at a private school, told me: “Our government acts like they don’t care whether we are occupied or not … Israelis are killing kids and the government is not letting [sic] Israel pay for it.”</p>
<p>This week, Palestinians across the West Bank have joined protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. But they have also been highly critical of the PA. In response PA security forces have cracked down on and fired live ammunition at demonstrators, killing young people like <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/palestinian-authority-cracks-down-on-protests-over-israel-gaza-attacks">Razan Nasrallah</a>, a 12-year-old girl from Jenin who was shot and killed in the West Bank city on October 17 while protesting at the attack on a Gaza hospital which killed hundreds of Palestinians.</p>
<p>Although some young people were also cynical about the prospect of seeing an end to the occupation in their lifetime, most were optimistic. Anwar, a grade nine pupil at a UN school told me that while “adults feel that it is over … as young people, we still have hope because we have a future”.</p>
<h2>3. Israelis: even occupiers deserve human rights</h2>
<p>Many of the young people I interviewed in 2015 were keen to make a distinction between most Jewish people living in Israel and those whose vision of a Zionist Jewish homeland involves the displacement of native Palestinians. As Jiries, a grade nine pupil at a private school told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some people say that Jews are the one who are Zionist … but they’re wrong because there are a lot of Jews that support us … I just want to make sure that everyone who reads about “Jews” or “Zionists” can separate between the two.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The students were also keen to stress that not all of the Jewish community supports the state of Israel’s policy towards Palestine – and during the current conflict there are many Jewish groups around the world <a href="https://twitter.com/jvplive/status/1714786837003120668">standing in solidarity</a> with them:</p>
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<p>The young people I interviewed lived in areas of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which are officially off limits for Israelis. So, most of the young people’s encounters with Israelis would have been with settlers or soldiers either at checkpoints or during military raids. Young people held different views on their perceptions of the Israelis they’d encountered. Lina, a girl in grade nine at a UN school for refugee children stressed the difference between soldiers and citizens, meanwhile her classmate Nadiya, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the Gaza war they didn’t differentiate between civilians and soldiers, Israelis target civilians and most of those who were killed were children, women and old people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But when I asked this group of refugee girls if they thought an Israeli young person their age should enjoy the same human rights as them, they unanimously agreed.</p>
<h2>4. Hope for the future</h2>
<p>The occupied Palestinian territories have a <a href="https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/Press_En_InterPopDay2022E.pdf">young population</a>: the median age in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is 19.6 years and in Gaza more than 40% of people are 14 or younger. Since October 7 2023, a Palestinian child has been killed about <a href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/hundreds_of_palestinian_men_women_and_children_killed_at_al_ahli_hospital#:%7E:text=Israeli%20forces%20have%20killed%20a,the%20Israeli%20perimeter%20fence%20surrounding">every 15 minutes</a>. </p>
<p>For those who survive, military attacks can leave children with life-changing disabilities, without parental care, and can have long-term adverse impacts on their mental health. Other children may yet die because they can’t access food, water, or life-saving medical treatment because of the siege. </p>
<p>Despite being <a href="https://www.savethechildren.net/news/least-2000-children-killed-gaza-airstrikes-continue-unabated">disproportionately affected</a> by the violence, the views of young people are rarely consulted and their voices are largely missing in commentaries and decision-making processes that will affect their lives. Young people in society do not necessarily reproduce the views of adults around them. And often adults don’t listen when the young speak. </p>
<p>As Marwan, one of the young people I spoke to put it: “[adults] don’t understand that we are mature enough to understand our world”. Young people in Gaza and those in exile <a href="https://twitter.com/MalakaShwaikh/status/1716164427307758003">have addressed the international community</a> calling for an immediate ceasefire. </p>
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<p>The question is, who will listen and act upon these young people’s calls? They are the future of Palestine and their voices must be heard.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erika Jiménez received funding for the research for this article from the Department for Employment and Learning.</span></em></p>The author spoke with 96 Palestinian teenagers in 2015 about their lives and their hopes for the future.Erika Jiménez, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Law, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.