tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/palestinians-40082/articlesPalestinians – The Conversation2024-03-27T23:15:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248652024-03-27T23:15:57Z2024-03-27T23:15:57ZWhen does anti-Zionism become antisemitism? A Jewish historian’s perspective<p>In his latest book, <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512823837/jewish-life-in-medieval-spain/">Jewish Life in Medieval Spain</a>, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest kingdoms, Aragon and Castile, with frequent attacks against Jews. This culminated in riots in 1391, which resulted in deaths, destruction of property, rapes and forced conversions.</p>
<p>Ray describes an appeal the Jewish community made to the Spanish king in 1354, describing the hatred they faced: </p>
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<p>[…]the people made the earth tremble with their cries of: “all this is happening because of the sins of Jacob [later renamed Israel]. Let us destroy this nation! Let us kill them!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Treating Jews as scapegoats during times of hardship is an ongoing feature of Jewish history. Some <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-before-the-holocaust-pogroms-killed-100000-jews-then-were-forgotten/">100,000 Jews were murdered</a> in eastern Europe as part of the struggles following the 1917 Russian Revolution. These attacks were followed by the tragedy of the Holocaust. </p>
<p>Jews were also targeted in riots in the Middle East and North Africa during the second world war. During the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-13610702">Farhud of 1941</a>, for example, a violent mob attacked the Jews of Baghdad, killing up to 180 people, raping women and looting properties.</p>
<p>An awareness of this ongoing history of persecution is important to understand the trauma of the October 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel, during which 1,200 people were killed (and some sexually assaulted) and around 240 people abducted. It was a watershed moment for Israelis, as well as the Jewish diaspora. </p>
<p>It also helps to understand the Jewish perspective on some of the rhetoric heard at global protests against Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza – and more broadly against Zionism – since October 7. To many, this equates to antisemitism. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-dark-history-of-antisemitism-in-australia-217908">The long, dark history of antisemitism in Australia</a>
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<h2>When anti-Zionism leads to antisemitism</h2>
<p>Much ink has been spilt on the issue of whether protests against Zionism, or anti-Zionism, are inherently antisemitic. </p>
<p>Certainly, within the academic realm, anti-Zionism does not necessarily conflate with antisemitism. As Michelle Goldberg <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/opinion/antisemitism-vs-anti-zionism.html">recently wrote</a>, anti-Zionism can emerge from those who believe in the potential for Israelis and Palestinians to live together in the same state, or from well-intentioned concerns for Palestinian suffering, among other reasons.</p>
<p>However, when the real-life impact of anti-Zionism results in cries advocating for the killing of Jews, then it can only be understood as antisemitism. As is any criticism of Zionism or Israel that crosses the line into blatant racism or discrimination, demands to de-platform or exclude Zionists, the resurfacing of tropes and conspiracy theories about Jewish people, or the questioning of Israel’s right to exist as a state.</p>
<p>On October 9, just two days after Israel’s declaration of war against Hamas, a pro-Palestinian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/09/pro-palestinian-rally-in-sydney-calls-for-australia-to-drop-support-for-israel">rally</a> took place in Sydney with clear parallels to 1354. </p>
<p>While the police may <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/02/afternoon-update-expert-finds-no-evidence-of-gas-the-jews-chant-at-rally-two-killed-by-sydney-freight-train-and-amazons-profits-surge#:%7E:text=Initial%20reports%20of%20the%20chant,%E2%80%9Cwhere's%20the%20Jews%3F%E2%80%9D.">quibble</a> as to whether the protesters’ chants were “gas the Jews” or “where’s the Jews”, for Jewish people, the intent was the same.</p>
<p>The crowd at <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/i-have-never-experienced-a-more-challenging-period-to-live-as-a-jew-20231101-p5egvc.html">another rally</a> at the Victoria parliament chanted “Khaybar, Khaybar, the armies of Muhammed are coming”. This refers to attacks by the Muslim army against the Jewish tribe in Arabia in 628, when Jews were subjugated, expelled or slaughtered.</p>
<p>These hateful messages coincided with an unprecedented upsurge of antisemitism in Australia – an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/13/julian-leeser-accuses-australian-human-rights-commission-of-failing-to-address-antisemitism">increase of 738%</a> since October 7, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. These acts included vile graffiti messages, the boycotting of Jewish businesses deemed “Zionist”, verbal abuse (including death threats), physical abuse and attacks on social media. </p>
<p>This rising antisemitism – as well as the lack of empathy and support many Jewish people felt in Australia following the October 7 attack – is what led to the formation of the Jewish creatives and academics WhatsApp group. </p>
<p>Its members were later shocked at the leaking of their chat with personal details and photos, as well as the threats and abuse some experienced. As Jewish historian David Slucki <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/zionism-anti-zionism-doxxing-and-whatsapp-zio600-group/103472344">stressed</a>, such doxxing has no justification. </p>
<p>Some have argued the release of the chat messages was <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-jewish-creatives-whatsapp-leak-was-more-whistleblowing-than-doxing-heres-why-223552">whistleblowing</a> because the group was trying to suppress pro-Palestinian voices. To Jewish members, however, this argument <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/hundreds-of-jewish-creatives-have-names-details-taken-in-leak-published-online-20240208-p5f3if.html">evokes</a> ancient tropes of secret Jewish cabals. It also suggests that being Zionist automatically means one is anti-Palestinian. Such assumptions foster antisemitism, the clear outcome of the leak.</p>
<p>For example, the ongoing idea of Jews having “tentacles” that reach far and wide to control people was recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/07/chris-minns-jenny-leong-antisemitic-trope-octupus-greens-mp">resurrected</a> by Jenny Leong, a Greens MP for Newtown (who later <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/nsw-mp-apologises-for-inappropriate-words-at-pro-palestine-event-20240206-p5f2pn.html">apologised</a>).</p>
<h2>Where Zionism comes from and how it’s evolved</h2>
<p>To understand what anti-Zionism is, one needs first to understand what Zionism means. </p>
<p>The word “Zion” stems from the bible. It refers to a mountain in Jerusalem where <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/David">King David</a>, one of the most revered figures in Jewish history who conquered Jerusalem in the 10th century, is believed to be buried. </p>
<p>Over millennia, “Zion” has come to refer to Jerusalem itself, as well as the Land of Israel. Zionism is also the Jewish national self-determination movement, which emerged in the 19th century to create a Jewish state in the Jews’ ancestral homeland, Israel. This goal was achieved in 1948. </p>
<p>Before 1948, there were Jews who opposed the Zionist movement for different reasons. The ultra-Orthodox believed Jews had to wait for the coming of the Messiah and creation of a theocratic state. Secular socialists, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.monash.edu/arts/acjc/yiddish-melbourne/organisations/bund">believed</a> Jews needed to fight for full equality and self-determination in their own countries. </p>
<p>As he discusses in his <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/my-life-as-a-jew-9781761380471">autobiography</a>, Jewish journalist Michael Gawenda grew up with such an anti-Zionist viewpoint, but gradually shifted his views on Israel. Then, he says, the world changed on October 7. As he suggests in a <a href="https://fathomjournal.org/after-the-pogrom-an-australian-journalist-reflects/">recent article</a>, some of those criticising Israel on the left today see the state as “the bastard child of an evil ideology”. He writes:</p>
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<p>The Hamas pogrom and its aftermath — the explosion of antisemitism and Jew hatred [around the world] — reminded Jews like me that in Jewish history, what may have seemed to be a golden age for Jews can end suddenly, violently, inexplicably and with devastating and sometimes murderous consequences.</p>
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<p>In a recent <a href="https://plus61j.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Crossroads23_Survey_Report_June_2023_2-1.pdf">survey</a>, 77% of Australian Jewry identified as Zionist and 86% agreed the existence of Israel was essential for the future of the Jewish people.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universalism-or-tribalism-michael-gawendas-memoir-considers-what-it-means-to-be-a-jew-in-contemporary-australia-213459">Universalism or tribalism? Michael Gawenda's memoir considers what it means to be a Jew in contemporary Australia</a>
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<p>Many anti-Zionists today, particularly among the progressive left, however, believe Israel was “born in sin” as a racist, settler-colonial state. In their view, Zionists are pursuing ethnic cleansing, expulsions, theft, apartheid and genocide against the Palestinians. </p>
<p>These beliefs were also <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-dark-history-of-antisemitism-in-australia-217908">propagated by the Soviets</a> from the early 1960s as part of their efforts to win over the Arab world.</p>
<p>It is important to stress that criticising the Israeli government’s actions towards the Palestinians is not inherently anti-Zionist. This includes legitimate criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza and the government’s failure to set out clear plans for the aftermath of the war. </p>
<p>For example, US Senator Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, recently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/schumer-netanyahu-israel-poland-hamas-3c86e541396fda36b0ef05b2d36c28e5">strongly criticised</a> the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Schumer is <a href="https://theconversation.com/pro-israel-but-anti-netanyahu-democratic-party-leaders-try-to-find-the-middle-ground-226050">one of the most pro-Israel senators</a> in US history. He cannot be considered an anti-Zionist.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Excerpt from Schumer’s speech in Congress on March 14.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Conflicting definitions on antisemitism</h2>
<p>In recent years, efforts have been made to define antisemitism to show how it intersects with attitudes towards Israel and to draw clearer lines explaining when anti-Zionism becomes antisemitism. </p>
<p>This culminated in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s adoption of a <a href="https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism">working definition of antisemitism</a> in 2016. While stressing that legitimate criticism of Israel is <em>not</em> antisemitism, seven of its 11 examples of antisemitic behaviour relate to Israel. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, for example, by claiming the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour</p></li>
<li><p>drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis</p></li>
<li><p>holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>To date, 38 nations have accepted this definition of antisemitism, including Australia in 2021.</p>
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<p>Some scholars, including those who would consider themselves anti-Zionists, however, have rejected the definition and developed and signed another, known as <a href="https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/">the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism</a>. </p>
<p>A small minority of Jews who oppose Israel’s existence as a Zionist state adhere to this definition. For other Jews it is seen as more accurate because it is less prescriptive than the IHRA definition and also seeks to “clarify when criticism of (or hostility to) Israel or Zionism crosses the line into antisemitism and when it does not”. </p>
<p>For instance, it says criticising or opposing Zionism “as a form of nationalism” is not antisemitic, while “denying the right of Jews in the state of Israel to exist and flourish” would be. </p>
<p>As Jewish historian Derek Penslar <a href="https://fathomjournal.org/why-i-signed-the-jda-a-response-to-cary-nelson-2/">explains</a> in terms of why he signed it: </p>
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<p>There are a great many people in the world who bear no animus against Jews but who are troubled by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and want it to change. Such critics include Jews who are deeply attached to Zionism as an ideal and Israel as the fulfilment of that ideal. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Without an historical lens, it’s not possible to fully understand the complex interconnections between anti-Zionism and antisemitism today. </p>
<p>Instead of the polarising pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist narratives we are currently seeing, our aim should be to work towards understanding each other’s pain and learning to listen to each other with respect, even if we choose to agree to disagree. We seem to have a long way to go to achieve this goal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224865/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzanne Rutland has received an Australian Research Council grant for her research on the Australian Jewry and funding from the Pratt Foundation, as well as an Australian Prime Ministers Centre (APMC) fellowship for her research on Soviet Jewry and Australia. She is also involved with numerous NGOs, including the Australian Jewish Historical Society (patron), the Australian Association for Jewish Studies (past president and committee member), and the Australian government’s expert delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. In addition, she is a board member of the Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry at ANU; she is on an academic advisory committee at the Sydney Jewish Museum; she has joined the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism; and she is an Australian board member for Boys Town Jerusalem. These roles are all undertaken in an honorary capacity. She is also writing the history of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in an honorary capacity.</span></em></p>When the real-life impact of anti-Zionism results in cries advocating for the killing of Jews, then anti-Zionism can only be understood as antisemitism.Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag: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>
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<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/2255232024-03-25T15:23:27Z2024-03-25T15:23:27ZDoes the destruction of homes in Gaza constitute genocide?<p>The intentional destruction of homes — by a government or private entity, during war or peacetime, on an individual or communal basis — is referred to as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0267303032000087766">domicide</a>” <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/from-bureaucracy-to-bullets">by scholars</a> and by Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77190-right-adequate-housing-during-violent-conflict-report-special">United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing</a>.</p>
<p>Domicide <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/83825/the-case-for-the-international-crime-of-domicide/">can constitute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes</a>. It has been used in armed conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Myanmar and now in Gaza, where Israel has destroyed <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-day-158">more than 60 per cent of homes</a>. The bombings of Gazan homes have also killed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/21/gaza-death-toll-25000-un-antonio-guterres">tens of thousands</a> of Palestinians.</p>
<p>In the wake of Russia’s demolition of homes in Ukraine in 2022, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77190-right-adequate-housing-during-violent-conflict-report-special">Rajagopal argued</a> that domicide goes <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77190-right-adequate-housing-during-violent-conflict-report-special">beyond collateral damage and deserves stand-alone prohibition and punishment</a> in international law.</p>
<h2>Cutting homeland ties</h2>
<p>Homes are <a href="https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/the-land/colonial-lives-of-property-in-south-australia-british-columbia-and-palestine">more than physical dwellings or property</a>. Widespread domicide extinguishes individual and collective identity, memory and ties to homeland. </p>
<p>The deep connection of homes in Gaza to Palestinian land, territory and nationhood renders Israel’s destruction of them a genocidal tactic. Israel’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1068/d">long history</a> <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/435686">of intentional</a> and <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/from-bureaucracy-to-bullets/9781978802711/">arbitrary destruction of Palestinian homes</a>, and the <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1649445">subsequent displacement of Palestinians</a>, have been accompanied by the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2017.47.1.18">legalized annexation of Palestinian land</a>.</p>
<p>This history reveals a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/">strategy of deliberately targeting homes</a> to harm Palestinians as a <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf#page=72">national, racial and ethnic group</a>. </p>
<p>The home is a crucial site of Palestinian group identity and national belonging. </p>
<p>In the words of social work scholar Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer: “<a href="https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/ww72bh72r">Palestinians see the home as a symbol of existence and as a means that connects them to the land</a>.” The UN Commission on Human Rights further makes note of the <a href="https://undocs.org/E/CN.4/2001/121">deep attachment of Palestinians to their homes and agricultural land</a>, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1555-2934.2009.01061.x">olive and citrus trees</a>.</p>
<h2>Home is critical to Palestinians as a group</h2>
<p>While the home is central to many communities, it holds a particular significance to the continued existence of Palestinians as a national group. The home is where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316159927">identities, localities, social relations, cultures and nationhood</a> are produced, as feminist historian <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/palestinians-9781848132573/">Rosemary Sayigh</a> has argued.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/nakba/9780231135795">volume of studies into the 1948 <em>Nakba</em></a> — the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948">mass dispossession and displacement</a> of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the creation of Israel — by political scientist Ahmad Sa’di and anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod, ethnographic accounts document how the Palestinian home is a site of individual and collective memory passed on generationally. In the face of the ongoing erasure of Palestinian experiences, culture and places, that memory is also political.</p>
<p>Memories of the Nakba continue to infuse present-day Palestinian life. Subsequent displacements are being <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/14/a-second-nakba-echoes-of-1948-as-israel-orders-palestinians-to-leave">collectively experienced as a continuation of Nakba</a>.</p>
<p>Under constant threat and attack by Israel, the security and meaning of the home have become central to Palestinian national existence and identity. As Palestinian legal scholar <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/434/article/829323/summary">Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian</a> explains, the Palestinian home is “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316159927">responsible for the preservation of psychological and social life and the prevention of social death</a>.”</p>
<p>As a site of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00352.x">collective memory-making</a>, the home is also essential to the preservation of Palestine as a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2201473X.2013.859979">national homeland with territorial sovereignty</a> and the continuation of Palestinians as a <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/palestinians-9781848132573/">distinct national group</a> protected by the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml">United Nations Genocide Convention</a>.</p>
<h2>Domicide as genocide</h2>
<p>Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, when “<a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/1948-convention.shtml">committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group</a>,” acts causing serious bodily or mental harm or deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about a protected group’s physical destruction constitute genocide. </p>
<p>Both of these prohibited acts are implicated by the destruction of Palestinian homes in Gaza. As South Africa argued at the International Court of Justice in November 2023 — in reference to crimes committed by Hamas and militants from other armed groups on Oct. 7, 2023 and the continued holding of Israeli hostages — “<a href="https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/icj-hearing-the-south-african-case-in-full/">no matter how outrageous or appalling an attack or provocation, genocide is never a permissible response</a>.”</p>
<p>Domicide inflicts deep emotional trauma that <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/01/27/gaza-two-rights-of-return/">is passed on to future generations</a>. In Gaza, the tragic last public words of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/10/at-least-six-palestinian-journalists-killed-in-israeli-strikes-on-gaza">journalists</a>, <a href="https://lithub.com/read-the-last-words-of-writer-heba-abu-nada-who-was-killed-last-week-by-an-israeli-airstrike/">poets</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/middleeast/refaat-alareer-gaza-professor-killed-in-airstrike-intl/index.html">academics</a>, <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/13/remembering_hammam_alloh">doctors</a> and <a href="https://www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/patients-medical-staff-trapped-in-hospitals-under-fire/">medical personnel</a>, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-12-19/farewells-from-gaza">residents</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/in-gaza-thousands-of-aid-workers-risk-their-lives-on-mission-to-ensure-the-well-being-of-others-1.7066053">international aid workers</a> bear witness to Israel’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/jan/30/how-war-destroyed-gazas-neighbourhoods-visual-investigation">widespread destruction of homes</a>, forcible displacement and the mental and physical suffering in the ensuing long journeys to the southern Gaza Strip.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1723399213105521030"}"></div></p>
<p>Israel has displaced <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-day-158">75 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people</a> at a <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/mass-exodus-begins-in-gaza-as-israel-tells-people-to-leave-ahead-of-more-raids">staggering pace</a>.
Approximately <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/urgent-statement-from-chief-executives-of-humanitarian-agencies-and-human-rights-organizations-on-rafah-gaza/">1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are concentrated under abominable conditions in Rafah</a>, forced to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-destruction-bombing-israel-aa528542">sleep in the street and burn garbage to cook</a> while <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/2/9/israeli-bombs-target-gazas-overcrowded-rafah">being subjected to frequent bombings</a>.</p>
<p>Domicide and mass displacement have also created conditions for greater suffering and loss of life due to inadequate shelter, disease, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza">starvation</a> and lack of medical care. </p>
<p>It has exacerbated the <a href="https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/trapped-the-impact-of-15-years-of-blockade-on-the-mental-health-of-gazas-children/">vulnerability of children</a>, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/01/gaza-israeli-attacks-blockade-devastating-people-disabilities">disabled people</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/two-months-war-gaza-leave-elderly-newborns-destitute-displaced-2023-12-07/">the elderly</a>, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-queering-the-map/">LGBTQ2A+ people</a> <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/01/gender-alert-the-gendered-impact-of-the-crisis-in-gaza">and women</a>, exposing them to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-pediatricians-two-weeks-inside-a-hospital-in-gaza">severe physical</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/01/a-palestinian-poets-perilous-journey-out-of-gaza">mental harm</a>. </p>
<p>Doctors have described the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-pediatricians-two-weeks-inside-a-hospital-in-gaza">horrors of Gazan children losing limbs and being operated on without supplies or anesthesia</a> and losing their entire families — now referred to by the acronym WCNSF <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67614139">(wounded child, no surviving family)</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf#page=72">dehumanizing statements by senior Israeli officials about Palestinians</a> along with the staggering violence in Gaza — sometimes graphically <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/videos-of-israeli-soldiers-acting-maliciously-emerge-amid-international-outcry-against-tactics-in-gaza">celebrated by Israeli soldiers</a> — suggests an intention to bring about the total or partial destruction of Palestinian life.</p>
<h2>Recognizing domicide in Gaza</h2>
<p>The illegality of disproportionate destruction of civilian property and dwellings is currently recognized under international law. However, the significance of the destruction of the home warrants further attention. Whether through its existing role in international crimes or additionally as a separate crime, the atrocities in Gaza highlight the need to recognize domicide as deliberately furthering the destruction of a group. </p>
<p>When Israel attacks Palestinian homes in Gaza, it is doing more than destroying property — it is demonstrating a genocidal intention to destroy Palestinians as a group. </p>
<p>Given the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-destruction-bombing-israel-aa528542">widespread current destruction</a>, <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf#page=72">the indications of an intent to destroy Palestinians as a group</a> and the <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf">International Court of Justice’s ruling on the plausibility of genocide</a> in Gaza, there are compelling reasons to assess Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes as genocide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Priya Gupta 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 deep connection of homes in Gaza to Palestinian land, territory and nationhood makes Israel’s destruction of them a genocidal tactic.Priya Gupta, Associate Professor of Law, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2260862024-03-21T14:42:07Z2024-03-21T14:42:07ZStarvation is a weapon of war: Gazans are paying the price<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/a0ebccbd-65af-4884-ae7e-49ae086cd98f?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>On Monday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ipc-gaza-famine-report-1.7146974">accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war</a> and provoking famine in Gaza. </p>
<p>Israel <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-asks-world-court-not-order-new-measures-over-gaza-hunger-2024-03-18/">denies the allegations</a>, which are some of the strongest words we have heard from a western power about the situation in Gaza since October. The EU statement comes on the heels of a <a href="https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-97/en/">UN-backed report</a> that warns that more than one million people — half of Gaza’s population — face catastrophic starvation conditions. </p>
<p>The report compiled through a partnership of more than 19 international agencies, including the United Nations and the Canadian International Development Agency, goes on to say that without an immediate ceasefire and a major influx of food especially into areas cut off by fighting, famine and mass death in Gaza are imminent.</p>
<p>In response to Monday’s report, the United Nations Secretary-General, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/3/18/un-backed-report-says-famine-imminent-in-northern-gaza">António Guterres said</a> Palestinians in Gaza are “enduring horrifying levels of hunger and suffering” and called the findings an “appalling indictment of conditions on the ground for civilians.”</p>
<p>“We must act now to prevent the unthinkable, the unacceptable and the unjustifiable,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/video/famine-expert-analyzes-gaza-humanitarian-crisis/">Scholars of famine</a> say this is the worst food deprivation they have observed in war time since the Second World War. And according to international law, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/31/israel-gaza-starvation-international-law">intentional starvation of a population is a war crime</a>.</p>
<p>Hilal Elver joined us to share her extensive expertise on the issue. Prof. Elver is the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, a position she held for six years, from 2014 to 2020. She is also a research professor of Global Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara and a Global Distinguished Fellow at the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law. Elver currently serves on the committee of experts at the Committee on World Food Security.</p>
<p>With almost 50 per cent of Gaza’s population under 18, Elver says children are forced to grow up quickly in Gaza. She worries for their future. She says even if we stop the war right now, “we’re going to lose this generation.” </p>
<h2>Listen and follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a> <a href="https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2024/03/apple-introduces-transcripts-for-apple-podcasts/">(transcripts available)</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.</p>
<p>Join the Conversation on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dontcallmeresilientpodcast/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">X</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/theconversationcanada">LinkedIn</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Famine_Committee_Review_Report_Gaza_Strip_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Feb_July2024_Special_Brief.pdf">Famine Review Committee Report: Gaza Strip Acute Food Insecurity March 2024</a> — Integrated Food Security Phase Classification</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Mass+Starvation%3A+The+History+and+Future+of+Famine-p-9781509524662"><em>Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine</em></a> by Alex de Waal</p>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/un-chief-pushes-get-aid-into-gaza-process-is-slow-2023-10-20/">U.N. chief pleads for Gaza lifeline at Egypt border crossing</a></p>
<h2>From the archives - in The Conversation</h2>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/western-moral-credibility-is-dying-along-with-thousands-of-gaza-citizens-220449">Western moral credibility is dying along with thousands of Gaza citizens</a>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/ramadan-will-be-difficult-for-those-in-gaza-or-other-war-zones-what-does-fasting-mean-for-those-who-might-be-already-starving-225152">Ramadan will be difficult for those in Gaza or other war zones – what does fasting mean for those who might be already starving?</a>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/israeli-siege-has-placed-gazans-at-risk-of-starvation-prewar-policies-made-them-vulnerable-in-the-first-place-222657">Israeli siege has placed Gazans at risk of starvation − prewar policies made them vulnerable in the first place</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
We speak with Hilal Elver, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and current University of California professor about the looming famine in Gaza after months of Israeli attacks.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientAteqah Khaki, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientHusein Haveliwala, Student Journalist/Assistant Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250672024-03-12T18:38:37Z2024-03-12T18:38:37ZCanada’s inaction in Gaza marks a failure of its feminist foreign policy<p><a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/assets/pdfs/iap2-eng.pdf?_ga=2.63794223.1840653675.1709657832-2101566470.1701624369">“Peace and prosperity are every person’s birthright.”</a> So opened then Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland’s introduction to Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP).</p>
<p>Launched in 2017, the policy stated that Canada would take an explicitly feminist approach to international assistance, including a commitment to protecting women’s sexual and reproductive rights. Many considered it to be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0020702020960120">forward-thinking policy that builds on the past work of NGOs and other international partners.</a></p>
<p>However, the policy also revealed shortcomings. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0020702020953424">It was criticized</a> for its <a href="https://www.e-ir.info/2020/02/10/the-growth-of-feminist-foreign-policy/">fuzzy definition of feminism,</a> its <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2019.1592002">surface-level engagement</a> with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039">overlapping forms of inequality</a> women actually face and for its <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/fpa/orz027">neoliberal approach to feminism</a> that seeks to fix problems within the Global South, with little engagement with how these problems arose in the first place.</p>
<p>And now, as Israel’s offensive on Gaza marches on unabated and the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/29/gaza-death-toll-surpasses-30000-with-no-let-up-in-israeli-bombardment#:%7E:text=The%20death%20toll%20in%20%23Gaza,large%20majority%20women%20and%20children.">civilian death toll mounts</a>, Canada’s tepid response calls the strength and sincerity of its feminist commitments into doubt. Furthermore, the country’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-lawsuit-israel-military-exports-1.7134664">continued sale of military equipment to Israel</a> suggests where Canada’s stated feminist values conflict with other political interests leaving Palestinians by the wayside. </p>
<p>On a recent visit to Israel, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly expressed solidarity with Israeli victims of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/oct-7-sexual-violence-united-nations-reasonable-grounds-1.7133305">sexual violence committed by Hamas</a> and announced <a href="https://x.com/melaniejoly/status/1767189501208666293?s=20">$1 million dollars</a> in support. In addition to funding, Joly also offered RCMP support to help investigate the crimes of sexual violence against Israeli women. </p>
<p>In December, Joly issued <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/joly-condemns-hamas-rapes-of-israeli-women-after-weeks-of-pressure-1.6677943">strong condemnations</a> in response to allegations of rape committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. </p>
<p>In February 2023, Joly <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9491196/canada-joly-ukraine-visit/">also pledged millions for Ukrainian victims of sexual assault</a> along with Canada’s support for the investigation and prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence committed during Russia’s war against Ukraine.</p>
<p>Will Canada do the same for Palestinian women affected by military and sexual violence?</p>
<h2>Palestinian women’s rights long ignored</h2>
<p>Joly <a href="https://twitter.com/melaniejoly/status/1760435093342986384?s=20">condemned</a> the sexual and gender-based violence being committed against Palestinian women in Gaza in February 2024, but without explicitly naming who the perpetrators of violence are. </p>
<p>Her statement came after <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against">United Nations experts</a> expressed alarm over “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls continue to be subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.” They cited reports of arbitrary executions, killings, detentions and sexual abuse of Palestinian women and girls by Israeli forces.</p>
<p>Even before the current escalation of violence, Canada’s support of Israel’s actions have long been identified as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2020.1805340">significant limitation of FIAP</a>.</p>
<p>In the policy’s peace and security section, Canada commits to advocate for the “respect and protection of the human rights of women and girls in its international and multilateral engagements.” It also says that ensuring the safety and security of women and girls is one of the key steps to ensuring peace.</p>
<p>In Gaza, this security is not being assured. Israel’s bombardment and tightened blockade has killed more than 31,000 people, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/pentagon-walks-back-austins-gaza-casualty-figures-2024-02-29/">most of whom are women and children</a>. Those who survive live under constant threat and without access to basic medical aid, food and water. Over 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza — about 1.9 million civilians — <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15564.doc.htm#:%7E:text=A%20staggering%2085%20per%20cent,proposing%20that%20Palestinians%20should%20be">have been displaced</a> from their homes.</p>
<p>Palestinian women also face increased risk of sexual violence. There <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/22/claims-of-israeli-sexual-assault-of-palestinian-women-are-credible-un-panel-says">are credible</a> reports of sexual violence being used as a tool of war against both Israeli and Palestinian women. </p>
<h2>Reproductive health in Gaza in a dire state</h2>
<p>FIAP identifies a full range of reproductive healthcare <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9491196/canada-joly-ukraine-visit/#:%7E:text=Canada%20is%20pledging%20millions%20of,Russia%27s%20war%20on%20Ukraine%20nears.">as key to ensuring women and girls’ equality and empowerment</a>.</p>
<p>In Gaza, these rights are besieged daily. </p>
<p>An estimated <a href="https://prismreports.org/2024/02/13/reproductive-rights-organizations-failing-palestinians/">50,000 pregnant women in Gaza</a> are at <a href="https://jezebel.com/miscarriages-in-gaza-have-increased-300-under-israeli-1851168680">increased risk of miscarriage</a>, stillbirth and maternal death. This is in part due to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uncertain-fate-of-patients-needing-life-saving-dialysis-treatment-in-gaza-220941">Israeli attacks on health-care facilities</a>. These attacks have led not only to direct casualties, but have also severely restricted access to prenatal and natal care. </p>
<p>Women are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/21/gaza-childbirth/">giving birth without appropriate medical care</a>. This puts their lives and the lives of their babies at risk, contributing to higher rates of maternal and infant death.</p>
<p>The widespread food crisis has also had dire implications for reproductive and maternal health. The <a href="https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/press-releases/intensifying-conflict-malnutrition-and-disease-gaza-strip-creates-deadly-cycle">United Nations Children’s Fund has voiced concern</a> over the nutritional vulnerability of over 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. </p>
<p>Malnutrition can make breastfeeding difficult, if not impossible, and yet <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-aid-babies-hamas-israel-war-e0f843a8f5f1af49efc45f6cb02005a6">formula has been difficult</a> (and for some, impossible) to access. This has been exacerbated by high prices and delays and restrictions on delivery of humanitarian aid. Malnutrition affects maternal health, and can also have long-term consequences for the health of mothers and their children.</p>
<h2>Canada must act</h2>
<p>After mounting public pressure, including country-wide protests, Canadian officials first uttered the word “ceasefire” in December, two months after the start of the war. They did so on Dec. 12, 2023, in a non-binding <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/un-onu/statements-declarations/2023-12-12-explanation-vote-explication.aspx?lang=eng">UN resolution vote</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Canadian exports of military equipment to Israel have not only continued, but have <a href="https://www.readthemaple.com/trudeau-government-authorized-28-million-of-new-military-exports-to-israel-since-october/">increased since October</a>. Global Affairs Canada claims these exports are only for <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/9/demands-for-canada-to-stop-supplying-weapons-to-israel-grow-louder">non-lethal equipment</a>. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, they contribute to Israel’s military capacity. They undermine the legitimacy of Canada’s commitments to peacebuilding, and call into question whether its commitments to protecting the rights of women and girls extend to Palestinians.</p>
<p>Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/policy-politique.aspx?lang=eng">claims to be</a> “a reflection of who we are as Canadians.” It expresses the belief that “it is possible to build a more peaceful, more inclusive and more prosperous world… A world where no one is left behind.” </p>
<p>By its own standards, Canada has a responsibility to do more than verbalize support for a humanitarian ceasefire and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2024/03/canada-announces-continued-assistance-for-people-in-gaza.html">provide humanitarian aid</a>. </p>
<p>Canada’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/israel-gaza-london-ceasefire-ontario-families-1.7056926">delayed</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/30/canada-clarifies-its-stand-on-a-humanitarian-truce-00124372">inconsistent response</a> to Israel’s military violence in Gaza represents a failure to evenly apply its own foreign policy.</p>
<p>Canada’s current strategy of <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-aid-gaza">providing humanitarian aid</a> to assuage the effects of military violence, while simultaneously continuing to <a href="https://www.readthemaple.com/trudeau-government-authorized-28-million-of-new-military-exports-to-israel-since-october/">sell military equipment</a>, points to paradoxes within its foreign policy. An effective feminist foreign aid policy needs political action to address the root causes of poverty, violence and sexual and reproductive harm. In Gaza, this includes military occupation, violence and blockade. </p>
<p>If Canada truly wants to create a more peaceful and prosperous world, they must not leave Palestinian women behind.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Potvin previously received funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mayme Lefurgey 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>Canada’s tepid response to the war in Gaza and the severe harm caused to Palestinian women casts doubt on the sincerity of the government’s Feminist International Assistance Policy.Jacqueline Potvin, Research Associate, School of Nursing, Western UniversityMayme Lefurgey, Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of New BrunswickLicensed 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/2245572024-03-10T13:17:48Z2024-03-10T13:17:48ZGaza war: The displaced survivors of the Oct. 7 attack remain in need of support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580809/original/file-20240309-29-vprdfs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Evidence of arson during the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(J. Rozdilsky)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas orchestrated <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-rockets-airstrikes-tel-aviv-11fb98655c256d54ecb5329284fc37d2">a series of attacks on Israeli communities</a>. This was the deadliest attack Israel had experienced since the state was established in 1948. An <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/hamass-october-7-attack-visualizing-data#:%7E:text=Hamas's%20October%207%20terrorist%20attack,years%20of%20the%20Second%20Intifada">estimated 1,200 people</a> were killed, hundreds were taken hostage and approximately <a href="https://unwatch.org/report-un-silent-on-israeli-idps/">30,000 displaced</a>.</p>
<p>As an associate professor of disaster and emergency management who studies terrorism, I travelled to Kibbutz Be'eri in February, where I had the opportunity to bear witness to survivors of the atrocity.</p>
<p>As a matter of respect for Israel’s dead, survivors <a href="https://stories.bringthemhomenow.net/">and remaining hostages</a>, a certain moral obligation seems clear: <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/representing-evil-the-moral-paradoxes-of-bearing-witness-to-atro/10098410">atrocity requires representation</a>. Bearing witness means taking on a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276418776366">burden of responsibility</a> to observe and document.</p>
<p>Bearing witness can <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/syria/syria">serve multiple purposes</a>. Attempting to understand the toll of the conflict on survivors of violence and documenting atrocity to call attention to the criminality of terrorism can all be results of bearing witness.</p>
<p>I was embedded in an environment that was still in disaster response mode. Conducting research in communities affected by the attack required delicate manoeuvreing due to the precarious security situation and general unpredictability. </p>
<p>To navigate such challenges, my co-ordination with organizations having intimate local knowledge of ground conditions was of utmost importance. Arrangements for bearing witness were facilitated by the <a href="https://apfmed.org/">American Healthcare Professionals and Friends for Medicine in Israel (APF)</a>, who organized the Israel Solidarity Mission, which I participated in.</p>
<p>I made field observations at Kibbutz Be’eri at a point in time 130 days after the massacre. When <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hamas">Hamas attacked</a>, the ensuing <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-devastation-of-beeri">devastation at Be'eri</a> resulted in <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/israels-ground-zero-beeri-kibbutz-bloodiest-scenes-hamas/story?id=103936668">112 residents of the kibbutz</a> being murdered.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two photographs showing damage caused by weapons and fire to a wall and a window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580788/original/file-20240308-30-6ofgo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail showing damages to structures in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(J. Rozdilsky)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among those <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/vivian-silver-thought-to-be-taken-captive-from-beeri-confirmed-killed-by-hamas/">killed</a> at Be'eri was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/vivian-silver-friends-mourn-israel-death-manitoba-1.7027813">Vivian Silver</a>, a prominent Canadian Jewish humanitarian originally from Winnipeg.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-will-the-murder-of-peace-activists-mean-the-end-of-the-peace-movement-215973">Israel-Hamas war: will the murder of peace activists mean the end of the peace movement?</a>
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<h2>Physical ruins</h2>
<p>One observation that repeatedly stood out was arson. Observable burn scorch marks surrounding windows of bedrooms and safe rooms were apparent. Exterior walls of dwellings were pockmarked by automatic weapon fire. Interior walls of dwellings were scarred with blast effects from anti-personnel grenades.</p>
<p>The locations and characteristics of physical evidence of ruins, directly corresponded with descriptions of deaths as remembered by survivors and other <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/22/world/europe/beeri-massacre.html">third-party analysis</a> describing the mechanics of how the massacre took place.</p>
<p>Overall, my observations — made on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis in Be'eri — indicated the attackers had no apparent tactical objectives to their <a href="https://doi.org/10.4088/pcc.v01n0302">running amok</a>, other than killing and taking hostages.</p>
<h2>The fate of evacuees</h2>
<p>Intertwined with the sites of atrocity are locations where response is taking place. Hotels serve as shelters for those who cannot yet return. Approximately five months after the Oct. 7 attacks, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/what-makes-the-plight-of-israels-displaced-citizens-different/0000018d-ea95-d1e0-a1dd-fbf529ed0000">135,000 Israelis</a> remain displaced. </p>
<p>In meeting with emergency management officials at the city of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Ramat-Gan">Ramat Gan</a>, east of Tel Aviv, I learned that providing emergency social social services to evacuees has become a new responsibility for the city’s disaster workers. In late February, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/what-makes-the-plight-of-israels-displaced-citizens-different/0000018d-ea95-d1e0-a1dd-fbf529ed0000">15,100 evacuees</a> still reside in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580786/original/file-20240308-26-h383ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="shiny blue hotel building in a city" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580786/original/file-20240308-26-h383ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580786/original/file-20240308-26-h383ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580786/original/file-20240308-26-h383ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580786/original/file-20240308-26-h383ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580786/original/file-20240308-26-h383ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580786/original/file-20240308-26-h383ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580786/original/file-20240308-26-h383ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hotels in Ramat Gan continue to temporarily house persons who evacuated cities in southern Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(J. Rozdilsky)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For evacuees, their sense of security has been shattered, and their responses to the trauma they witnessed on Oct. 7 stretches their capacity to cope. Whether and how they can return to their homes in the <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/gaza-envelope-communities-case-study-societal-resilience-israel-2006-2016/">Gaza Envelope</a> is a decision fraught with emotion.</p>
<p>The coming months will be a pivotal point for evacuees. The government has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/government-says-evacuees-from-south-can-return-march-1-or-stay-in-subsidized-hotels-through-july/">announced two options</a>. As of March 1, evacuees may start to return home with the approval of the Israel Defense Forces. Or, if they are not ready to return, they can receive funding to remain in hotels until July 7.</p>
<h2>The suffering of others</h2>
<p>On the five-month anniversary of the attacks, attempting to digest and analyze recent events in Israel remains challenging, given the depth of the tragedy. Relevant questions are raised in <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312422196/regarding-the-pain-of-others"><em>Regarding the Pain of Others</em></a>, in which American writer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/dec/29/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries">Susan Sontag</a> asks: “What does it mean to care about the sufferings of others far away?” </p>
<p>After the visceral experience of bearing witness to atrocity by setting two feet on the ground at Be'eri, I am left with more questions than answers concerning what it means to care about far away suffering. After the more mundane experience of witnessing evacuees having an uncertain future living in hotels, I am thinking about how local disaster response actions play into national crises. </p>
<p>For survivors in Israel, the displacement and trauma are ongoing and it will take the time that it takes for their lives to normalize. A timeline cannot be put on the social and psychological repair of their lives. Experiences of survivors and evacuees should inform emergency measures by suggesting the timeline for evacuees to return home should remain as flexible as possible.</p>
<p><em>Edward Snowden, a graduate of the Master’s in Disaster and Emergency Management Program at York University who specializes in mass casualty management, contributed his observations from Israel.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack L. Rozdilsky receives support for research communication and public scholarship from York University. He also has received research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.</span></em></p>Bearing witness to the displaced victims of the Oct. 7 attack on Kibbutz Be'eri carries a burden of responsibility to observe and documentJack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210882024-03-05T20:11:23Z2024-03-05T20:11:23ZPlight of migrant laborers killed, held hostage in Middle East exposes Israel’s reliance on overseas workforce<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579960/original/file-20240305-21577-9fmlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C143%2C7961%2C4984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Thai foreign worker tends to an agriculture field in Beersheba, Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/thai-foreign-worker-tends-to-an-agriculture-field-near-nachrichtenfoto/1231752520?adppopup=true">Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An Indian laborer in Israel was killed and several other migrant workers injured on March 4, 2024, in <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/indian-killed-injured-anti-tank-missile-attack-israel-north-9195933/">a missile attack launched from Lebanon</a> by Hamas-aligned Hezbollah.</p>
<p>They are not the first migrant workers in Israel to get caught up in the monthslong fighting. Dozens of other farmworkers, agricultural apprentices and caregivers from countries including Thailand, Nepal, Tanzania, Cambodia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Moldova were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpeua8qUHmY&ab_channel=DWNews">murdered or taken hostage</a> during the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.</p>
<p>The sizable number of non-Israeli workers affected by the current war has <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/why-so-many-thai-workers-became-hamas-victims/a-67266701">surprised some onlookers</a> while shining a light on Israel’s reliance on temporary migrant workers.</p>
<p>But as researchers who study the <a href="https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/global/all/jweise">proliferation of migrant workers</a> around the world, we know how labor migration programs have transformed nearly all societies, including <a href="https://hu-berlin.academia.edu/SShoham">Israel’s</a>. The long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shaped Israel’s migrant worker history – and has contributed to the globalization of the workforce in the Middle East.</p>
<h2>A global story</h2>
<p>The initial recruitment of overseas workers to Israel, which began as early as the 1970s, followed a <a href="https://www.law.uchicago.edu/bilateral-labor-agreements-dataset">post-World War II trend</a> that saw higher-income countries – such as the U.S., France and West Germany – sign labor migration recruitment agreements with poorer nations. These poorer countries, which at the time included Mexico, Spain and Turkey, among others, overcame an initial reluctance to lose part of their populace and began to see emigration as a strategy for modernization. The idea was that emigrants could learn modern farming or industrial skills overseas, while sending money back to boost development in their home communities.</p>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/migrants-for-export">many South and Southeast Asian countries</a> began to promote the export of migrant workers as a key piece of their economic development strategies. At the same time, receiving countries <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1080/0023656032000057010">became hooked</a> on the idea of a flexible, temporary labor force that would not inflame anti-immigrant sentiment as much as more settled migrants seemingly did.</p>
<p>Israel’s relationship with Thai workers came initially by way of the United States’ support for the 1979 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. The U.S. government <a href="https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll4/id/353">recruited Thai workers</a> who had once worked on Vietnam War-era U.S. military bases in northeastern Thailand to help build a new air force base in Israel.</p>
<p>The arrival of the Thai migrant workers, along with Portuguese workers, prompted public controversy among Israeli lawmakers, trade unionists and the media about the creation of a split labor market, as research done by <a href="https://hu-berlin.academia.edu/SShoham">one of us</a> has shown. Meanwhile, others worried that the workers’ presence cut against Zionist imperatives to guarantee a Jewish majority.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a hat handles crates being loaded onto the back of a tractor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C391%2C7241%2C4436&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.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">A Thai worker labors in the field adjacent to the Gaza Strip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/october-2023-israel-sde-nitzan-a-thai-worker-continues-to-news-photo/1719823925?adppopup=true">Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Attempting to resolve these contradictions, the Israeli government <a href="https://www.trafflab.org/shahar-shoham">started to experiment</a> with migration policies designed for a new category of workers – neither Jewish nor Palestinian – who were intended to remain separate from Israeli society.</p>
<p>A decade later, in a different political moment, these policy ideas would become concrete in a new category of person in Israel: the “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/imre.12109">foreign worker</a>.”</p>
<h2>Growing recruitment</h2>
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict drove the “foreign worker” policy forward. Though Israel was founded on the ideology of “avoda ivrit,” or Hebrew labor, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza since 1967 has led to the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers, who became an attractive <a href="https://cris.tau.ac.il/en/publications/power-breaking-or-power-entrenching-law-the-regulation-of-palesti">low-wage labor force</a>.</p>
<p>They soon came to <a href="https://cris.tau.ac.il/en/publications/power-breaking-or-power-entrenching-law-the-regulation-of-palesti">compose 7% of the workers</a> in the Israeli labor market as a whole, 24% of workers in the agricultural sector and 60% in the construction sector.</p>
<p>The non-citizen Palestinian workers commuted daily from the West Bank and Gaza, controlled by a <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25698">regime of permits</a> and regulations.</p>
<p>When the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, began in 1987, some members of the Israeli public came to see such workers as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2547185">security risk</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/oslo-accords-30-years-on-the-dream-of-a-two-state-solution-seems-further-away-than-ever-213003">1993 Oslo Accords</a>, which sought to foment “separation” between Israelis and Palestinians, further pushed Israel to minimize the dependency on non-citizen Palestinian workers.</p>
<p>To make up for the shortfall, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362022418_On_the_Establishment_of_Agricultural_Migration_Industry_in_Israel%27s_Countryside">Israeli employers</a> convinced the government to vastly expand the recruitment of temporary workers to take their place. In addition to Thailand, countries including China, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Romania and Turkey spotted an opportunity and allowed Israeli employers to recruit within their borders. By 2003, migrant workers <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/remi/2691">made up 10% of the labor force</a> in Israel.</p>
<h2>Creating marginal workers</h2>
<p>Migrant workers in Israel, like their counterparts the world over, have long since been <a href="https://www.trafflab.org/_files/ugd/11e1f0_861945c9ea904d57a359c89d44424869.pdf">vulnerable to exploitation</a>.</p>
<p>Many of their origin countries did not demand a commitment to secure their citizens’ rights in the form of a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4168983">bilateral labor recruitment agreement</a>. And workers migrating via <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1350463042000227380">private recruitment</a> channels had to pay thousands of dollars in illegal “sign-up” fees, causing them to begin their journeys deep in debt. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israeli government policies have attempted to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jols.12366">keep migrants outside of society by confining</a> them to specific industries, obligating them to leave the country upon completion of their labor contract, excluding them from the <a href="https://www.kavlaoved.org.il/en/a-land-devouring-its-workers-neglect-and-violations-of-migrant-agricultural-workers-right-to-health-in-israel/">public health system</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/63/3/373/2468875?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false">prohibiting</a> them from marrying or engaging in romantic relations while in Israel.</p>
<p>And authorities have paid little attention to labor standards, leaving farmworkers, for example, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/01/21/raw-deal/abuse-thai-workers-israels-agricultural-sector">vulnerable</a> to <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42386415/Giving_them_the_slip_Israeli_employers_strategic_falsification_of_pay_slips_to_disguise_the_violation_of_Thai_farmworkers_right_to_the_minimum_wage">wage theft</a>, terrible housing and exposure to pesticides without proper protection. </p>
<p>Under pressure from the U.S. government and Israeli civil society, over the past decade Israel began to sign <a href="https://www.cimi-eng.org/_files/ugd/5d35de_16d441738d06413184ba6dfa94cb0135.pdf">bilateral agreements</a> with countries sending migrants. These eliminated exorbitant recruitment fees, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4167016">even if they failed</a> to meaningfully improve labor conditions. </p>
<p>Even so, the number of migrant workers has <a href="https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/generalpage/foreign_workers_stats/he/zarim2022.pdf">grown slowly</a> but steadily. In 2022, a total of 73,000 migrants in Israel worked as caregivers, in addition to nearly 50,000 in the construction and agriculture sectors combined. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man stands in a bombs shelter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.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">A Thai worker takes shelter in an underground bunker in Metula, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thai-workers-take-shelter-in-an-underground-bunker-after-news-photo/1720607203?adppopup=true">Marcus Yam/ LA Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet these migrants did not obviate the need to also have <a href="https://kavlaoved.org.il/en/areasofactivity/palestinian-workers/">Palestinian labor</a> in the mix. By Oct. 7, 2023, about 100,000 Palestinian workers crossed the border daily from Gaza and the West Bank.</p>
<h2>In harm’s way</h2>
<p>Since Oct. 7, Israeli authorities have ended those Palestinians’ work permits and tried to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-plans-bring-more-foreign-workers-construction-sector-report-2024-01-01/">recruit thousands of new workers</a> to the fields and construction sites to make up for the shortfall. </p>
<p>Malawi, a country that <a href="https://www.academia.edu/8987110/Independent_Africans_Migration_from_Colonial_Malawi_to_South_Africa_c_1935_1961">came to depend</a> on migrants’ economic remittances decades before Thailand did, has sent 700 farmworkers and <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/malawi-parliament-allows-labor-export-to-israel-/7490863.html">promises</a> another 9,000 on the way – notwithstanding <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLjNqFY4_Dk">criticism</a> from voices within the African nation itself. </p>
<p>In India, which had long sent caregivers to Israel, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi <a href="https://www.bwint.org/cms/india-unions-denounce-govt-plan-to-send-migrant-construction-workers-to-israel-3017">ignored internal criticism</a> and sent Israel more workers in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, including <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/who-was-pat-nibin-maxwell-indian-from-kerala-killed-as-hezbollah-launches-airstrikes-in-israel-11709631189269.html">Pat Nibin Maxwell</a>, the man killed in the March 4 Hezbollah attack.</p>
<p>Workers like Maxwell are now being sent to work near the borders of Lebanon and Gaza, laboring in agricultural communities vulnerable to Hamas and Hezbollah attacks that have been <a href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2024-03-04/ty-article/0000018e-09d0-d6be-afff-4dd174310000">depleted by the evacuation</a> of Israeli residents.</p>
<p>Though foreign governments are able to guarantee their citizens few protections in Israel, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/17/1229525320/india-israel-hamas-war-jobs-migrant-workers">thousands have queued up</a> in their home countries in search of a contract. </p>
<p>Once in Israel, they join the vast majority of migrant workers who have elected to remain in the country despite the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath.</p>
<p>Like millions of migrant workers the world over in search of economic progress or survival, they have calculated, for now, that earning higher wages abroad is worth taking significant personal risks. </p>
<p>While helping keep the Israeli economy running during wartime, these migrant workers remain in the path of rockets – as the death of Pat Nibin Maxwell has illustrated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shahar Shoham previously worked at Physicians for Human Rights-Israel </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Weise 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 contours of the Middle East conflict have long influenced Israel’s migrant worker policy.Julie Weise, Associate Professor of History, University of OregonShahar Shoham, Doctoral Candidate in Global and Area Studies at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University of BerlinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2169672024-02-29T13:39:18Z2024-02-29T13:39:18ZBias hiding in plain sight: Decades of analyses suggest US media skews anti-Palestinian<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572260/original/file-20240130-29-5jyhe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C17%2C2941%2C1922&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinian families seeking refuge in makeshift tents in vacant areas in Rafah, Gaza Strip. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinian-families-seeking-refuge-from-israeli-attacks-on-news-photo/1965323426?adppopup=true">Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>News organizations are often <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/09/newspapers-israel-palestine-bias-new-york-times/">accused of lacking impartiality</a> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-bbc-is-under-fire-for-its-coverage-of-the-israel-hamas-war-rightly-so/">when covering the Israeli-Palestinian</a> conflict. In November 2023, over <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/11/09/open-letter-journalists-israel-gaza/">750 journalists</a> signed an open letter alleging bias in U.S. newsrooms against Palestinians in the reporting of the ongoing fighting in the Gaza strip. </p>
<p>More recently, two articles in respected U.S. newspapers highlight the debate over bias.</p>
<p>A Feb. 2, 2024, op-ed in The Wall Street Journal described a Michigan city, where many Arab immigrants live, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/welcome-to-dearborn-americas-jihad-capital-pro-hamas-michigan-counterterrorism-a99dba38">as a center of antisemitic terrorism sympathizers</a>. On the same day, another op-ed in The New York Times depicted the U.S. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/30/opinion/thepoint#friedman-middle-east-animals">as a lion engaged in combat</a> with Iran – characterized as a “parasitoid wasp” – and Hamas – portrayed as a “trap-door spider,” executing rapid, predatory maneuvers. The pieces were attacked by critics as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/dearborn-community-says-wsj-article-is-a-distraction/">being Islamaphobic</a> and falling <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/thomas-friedman-animal-kingdom-nyt-rcna137283">back on racist tropes</a>. </p>
<p>Broadcast media is similarly being scrutinized for bias. According to the Guardian, CNN has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/feb/04/cnn-staff-pro-israel-bias">faced scrutiny for its alleged pro-Israel bias</a>, with claims that Israeli official statements receive expedited clearance and trustful on-air portrayal. Conversely, statements from Palestinians, including those not affiliated with Hamas, are frequently delayed or remain unreported. A notable instance cited by the Guardian involved former Israeli intelligence official Rami Igra asserting on CNN that the entire Palestinian population of Gaza could be considered combatants, a statement allowed to go unchallenged. </p>
<p>From the other side, Jonathan Greenbatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, has accused U.S. media of a bias that <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/anti-defamation-league-director-msnbc-coverage-israel-1235612659/">dehumanizes Israelis while sanitizing Hamas</a>. During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in October 2023, he raised concerns over the networks framing of Hamas, asking, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BXsC-7WSqI">Who’s writing the scipts</a>?” </p>
<p>The issue of bias isn’t confined to the U.S. In the U.K.,the state-funded BBC has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/oct/16/bbc-gets-1500-complaints-over-israel-hamas-coverage-split-50-50-on-each-side">received complaints on its Gaza coverage</a> from both sides as well.</p>
<p>With accusation of bias being levied by both sides in the conflict, what does academic research say about newsroom prejudice?</p>
<p>Support for the assertion of anti-Israeli bias in media occasionally emerges in research. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2016.1244381">2016 study</a> uncovered anti-Israeli bias in German and British newspapers, although results for U.S. publications were mixed. However, when scholars look at media coverage data as a whole, rather than pick and choose, they demonstrate that leading U.S. outlets tend to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1081180X03256999%22%22">more sympathetic toward the Israeli perspective</a> than that of Palestinians.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://iac.gatech.edu/people/person/natalie-khazaal">scholar of media bias and the Arab world</a>, in my own research, I have found that anti-Palestinian bias in the U.S. and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2011.571818">other countries’ media</a> is often subtle, albeit in plain view.</p>
<h2>Measuring bias</h2>
<p>Typically, scholars examine this form of media bias using both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2023.128219">quantitative</a> and qualitative measures of the <a href="https://libguides.lehman.edu/c.php?g=733610&p=5241445">framing, selection and portrayal of news</a>. Content analyses of <a href="https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/study-of-headlines-shows-media-bias-growing-563502/">news articles, headlines and images</a> are common methodologies, seeking patterns that may favor one perspective over the other.</p>
<p>Additionally, scholars examine the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3512176">sources cited and the prominence given to different voices</a>. Historical context, the overall tone and language, how often the media talks about suffering on one side compared with the other – all are indicators used to analyze media bias. </p>
<h2>Historical bias in language and reporting</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/media-and-political-conflict-news-middle-east?format=PB">Several</a> <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Reporting-the-Israeli-Arab-Conflict-How-Hegemony-Works/Liebes/p/book/9781138864580">studies</a> scrutinizing U.S. media coverage during the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, spanning from 1987 to 1993, consistently revealed pronounced biases. </p>
<p>The analyses indicated a propensity to emphasize Israeli deaths despite higher Palestinian casualties. The media’s reliance on Israeli sources shaped the narrative, omitting crucial context such as the illegality of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands under peace agreements. Overlooking this fact obscured the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41858380">correlation between increasing settlements and a rise in Palestinian attacks</a>, thus compromising a comprehensive understanding.</p>
<p>Throughout the second intifada from 2000 to 2005, the prevalence of bias in media coverage persisted. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-illusion-of-balance/?fbclid=IwAR02QPzY5_l3cg7NwKcZTKyr4ISHxt1PrWJiiWoumHT1nqlb1nAFlcU88rc">study conducted by the independent media watchdog FAIR</a> highlighted a notable instance concerning NPR’s reporting during the initial six months of 2001. While NPR initially presented similar figures of Israeli and Palestinian deaths — 62 versus 51 — FAIR’s comprehensive analysis revealed a stark disparity. When considering the total six-month death toll of 77 versus 148, NPR reported on eight out of 10 Israeli deaths but only three out of 10 Palestinian deaths, creating a skewed impression of balance. </p>
<p>NPR’s ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin, <a href="https://fair.org/home/the-illusion-of-balance/?fbclid=IwAR02QPzY5_l3cg7NwKcZTKyr4ISHxt1PrWJiiWoumHT1nqlb1nAFlcU88rc">responded</a> to this assessment saying that numerical equivalence doesn’t always equate to journalistic fairness. </p>
<h2>Selective coverage</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protestors hold a banner which reads 'In Gaza, the State of Israel also kills journalists,' while displaying names and photographs of those killed on the ground.," src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572259/original/file-20240130-29-wp5qc8.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 large number of journalists have been killed in Palestinian territories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protestors-holding-a-banner-which-reads-as-in-gaza-the-news-photo/1775804380?adppopup=true">Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Selective coverage has the potential to align with Israeli claims of self-defense, as scholars <a href="https://libcat.colorado.edu/Author/Home?author=Friel%2C+Howard%2C+1955-">Howard Friel</a> and <a href="https://politics.princeton.edu/people/richard-falk">Richard Falk</a> highlighted in their 2007 analysis of the <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/1998-israel-palestine-on-record">New York Times’ coverage of the second intifada</a>. The framing of attacks in Palestinian territories appeared to reflect a narrative that supported Israel’s stance.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://regener-online.de/journalcco/2003_2/pdf_2003_2/ross_engl.pdf">portrayal of Palestinian suffering</a>, encompassing deaths, home destruction and daily humiliation, tends to be downplayed both in the language used in coverage and by its reduced frequency compared with Israeli experiences. Media law scholar <a href="https://english.wsu.edu/susan-ross/">Susan Dente Ross</a> underscored in her 2003 study how the U.S. media often labeled Palestinians as aggressors rather than victims, thereby <a href="https://regener-online.de/journalcco/2003_2/pdf_2003_2/ross_engl.pdf">normalizing their losses and suffering</a>. </p>
<p>Echoing this perspective, media studies scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.ae/citations?user=iRAw1rUAAAAJ&hl=en">Mohamad Elmasry</a> argued in 2009 that the U.S. media rationalizes Israeli violence as a <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Death-in-the-Middle-East%3A-An-Analysis-of-How-the-in-Elmasry/686de091177e68331f80427b604c0ce030c32ce6">reluctantly understandable aspect of war</a>, framing Israel’s actions as “<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-war-west-press-context-sacrosanct-palestinians">retaliatory and legitimate</a>” while depicting Palestinian violence as “<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-war-west-press-context-sacrosanct-palestinians">barbaric and senseless</a>.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816659">displacement</a> of around 750,000 <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-bombing-adds-to-the-generations-of-palestinians-displaced-from-their-homes-216142">Palestinians in 1948</a> remains a top Palestinian concern, because it turned about 80% of Palestinians into <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/palestinian-refugees-dispossession">stateless refugees</a>.</p>
<p>“Rarely, however, is the history of how these people became refugees incorporated into the reporting,” and neither is the body of international law and consensus on their rights, states journalism scholar <a href="https://www.qatar.northwestern.edu/directory/profiles/dunsky-marda.html">Marda Dunsky</a>, who conducted the analysis. An analysis of 30 <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/pens-and-swords/9780231133487">major U.S. print and broadcast outlets</a> over four years – from 2000 to 2004 – found that the coverage lacked this important context during the second intifada. </p>
<p>The issue of sources is also contentious. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/073953290602700407">Three in every four major U.S. outlets</a> consistently favor Israeli sources over Palestinian and accord Israeli officials more positive media coverage, according to a 2006 study by scholars <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kuang-Kuo-Chang">Kuang-Kuo Chang</a> and <a href="https://comartsci.msu.edu/our-people/geri-alumit-zeldes">Geri Alumit Zeldes</a>. For the most part, U.S. outlets avoid quoting Palestinian officials, the study noted. </p>
<h2>AI confirms anti-Palestinian bias</h2>
<p>Recently, experts have started to study big data on the media portrayals of the conflict with the help of artificial intelligence. For example, in 2023, MIT’s <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QnYHj40AAAAJ&hl=en">Holly Jackson</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231178148">conducted a study</a> of 33,000 news articles from 1987-1993 and 2000-2005 – that cover the two intifadas – with the help of state-of-the-art AI technology that provides large-scale historical data.</p>
<p>Jackson confirmed that there was anti-Palestinian bias that persisted during the first and second intifadas. The discernible bias was manifested in the level of objectivity and the tone of language employed by outlets such as The New York Times. The bias was further underscored by the manner in which media outlets attributed sentiments of violence to either side involved in the conflict.</p>
<p>For instance, an article highlighted that “They [Jews] threw rocks at hotels housing Arabs, who hurled objects from their windows in return.” Notably, the article employs the more neutral verb “throw” to portray Israeli violence and the less neutral verb “hurl” to describe Palestinian violence. Journalists sometimes use synonyms; however, the cumulative effect of repeatedly using more negative synonyms for Palestinians and more positive ones for Israelis implies the existence of bias, Jackson noted.</p>
<p>Jackson’s findings revealed a significant disparity, with more than 90% of articles focusing on Israelis compared with less than 50% covering Palestinians. Additionally, the articles used negative language and the passive voice to refer to Palestinians twice as often as Israelis. For example, she reveals that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231178148">the passive construction “killed” is used</a> in “Palestinian killed as clashes erupt with troops” to avoid specifying the perpetrators of the violence, contrasting with the active “slay” in “Palestinians slay 2 Israeli hikers,” used to emphasize the perpetrators.</p>
<p>The anti-Palestinian sentiment increased from the first intifada to the second, the same study showed. As an illustration, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine">Palestinian deaths surged from 1,422 to 4,916</a>, a stark increase of three and a half times. They were also four and a half times greater than the 1,100 Israeli casualties. Yet, their reporting failed to correspond proportionately to the heightened occurrences.</p>
<p>How the media reports on events can greatly influence <a href="https://catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/8530692">public perceptions</a> of what is really going on. Reporting can prime audiences to see a Palestinian fighter in a mask as either an icon of <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9781783710751/more-bad-news-from-israel/">terrorism or a hero</a> resisting occupation, depending on how the news is presented.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Khazaal 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>How the media talks about suffering on one side compared with the other can often reveal bias in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict coverage, writes a scholar of media bias and the Arab world.Natalie Khazaal, Associate Professor of Arabic and Arab Culture, Georgia Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245202024-02-29T00:30:44Z2024-02-29T00:30:44ZAustralian writers festivals are engulfed in controversy over the war in Gaza. How can they uphold their duty to public debate?<p>A string of controversies are engulfing Melbourne Writers’ Festival, the Perth Festival’s Writers’ Weekend, the Sydney Opera House’s All About Women and Adelaide Writers Week. There’s a high-profile resignation, calls to cancel speakers and allegations of the spread of “historically untrue” facts and of normalising violence. </p>
<p>All, in one way or another, have been generated by divisions over the war in Gaza.</p>
<p>Writers’ festivals are in a fraught position. They navigate the frontier between social media’s echo chambers of outrage and the traditional public square’s conventions, where restraint, reason and tolerance in the face of opposing views are the basis for civilised debate.</p>
<p>How is it all playing out, and what are the consequences for the public exchange of ideas?</p>
<h2>‘Historically untrue’?</h2>
<p>At <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/gaza-conflict-engulfs-melbourne-writers-%20festival-as-leaders-quit-over-program-row-20240222-p5f757.html">Melbourne Writers Festival</a>, the deputy chair of the board, Dr Leslie Reti, has resigned over a poetry session that will involve Aboriginal and Palestinian poets reading their work.</p>
<p>The session is guest-curated by Koori-Lebanese writer Mykaela Saunders. It is based on the proposition Aboriginal and Palestinian people have a shared experience of having been colonised, becoming victims of atrocities by the colonising power. </p>
<p>Melbourne Writers Festival artistic director Michaela McGuire has confirmed the dispute is centred on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/feb/27/melbourne-writers-festival-deputy-chair-resigns-aboriginal-palestinian-solidarity-poetry-event-gaza-conflict">a line of program copy that reads</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Aboriginal and Palestinian solidarity has a long history, a relationship that is more vital than ever in the movement to resist colonialism and speak out against atrocities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a historically contentious proposition. Dr Reti, a retired Jewish clinician, said he respected McGuire’s curatorial independence, but described the material in the draft program as “historically untrue and deeply offensive”.</p>
<p>Prominent Aboriginal scholar Professor Marcia Langton, of the University of Melbourne, has also rejected proposed similarity between the experience of Aboriginal and Palestinian people, <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/gaza-conflict-engulfs-melbourne-writers-festival-as-leaders-quit-over-program-row-20240222-p5f757.html">saying</a>, “there is very little comparable in our respective situations, other than our humanity”.</p>
<p>Saunders was one of 132 Indigenous activists, artists and intellectuals who signed <a href="https://therednation.org/statement-of-indigenous-solidarity-with-palestine/">a petition released on October 27 last year</a> that claimed: “The past two weeks of horrific violence in Gaza resulted from 75 years of Israeli settler colonial dispossession”. </p>
<p>McGuire has defended her decision not to change the copy for Saunders’ event, titled Let it Bring Hope, saying “I completely support the right to self-determined programming”. </p>
<p>She <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/melbourne-mornings/melbourne-writers-festival-split-over-war-in-gaza/103512224">told ABC Radio on Monday</a>: “This entire event is about Aboriginal and Palestinian solidarity. It’s not for or about anyone who doesn’t subscribe to that, and so it doesn’t make any sense to not mention that in the event copy.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/gaza-conflict-engulfs-melbourne-writers-festival-as-leaders-quit-over-program-row-20240222-p5f757.html">Last year</a>, the Melbourne Writers Festival board decided “while writers should be free to express their views, the festival should not take a public position on the war”.</p>
<p>The Age <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/gaza-conflict-engulfs-melbourne-writers-%20festival-as-leaders-quit-over-program-row-20240222-p5f757.html">reported on Monday</a> that Fiona Menzies, the festival’s interim chief executive, also resigned over the festival’s program. But Alice Hill, chair of the board, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/feb/27/melbourne-writers-festival-deputy-chair-resigns-aboriginal-palestinian-solidarity-poetry-event-gaza-conflict">told the Guardian</a> that Menzies had resigned “for personal reasons, and would continue her relationship with the festival in a consultancy capacity”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-palestinian-authors-award-ceremony-has-been-cancelled-at-frankfurt-book-fair-this-sends-the-wrong-signals-at-the-wrong-time-215712">A Palestinian author's award ceremony has been cancelled at Frankfurt Book Fair. This sends the wrong signals at the wrong time</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Normalising violence?</h2>
<p>In Perth, the argument was over the inclusion of Jewish singer-songwriter Deborah Conway in the opening night of the Perth Festival’s Writers’ Weekend last week. In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/israel-gaza-arts-protests-deborah-conway/103231158">an interview on ABC Radio National</a>, she had questioned whether Palestinian children killed by the Israeli Defence Forces were really children. (“It depends on what you really call kids.”)</p>
<p>Conway contextualised her remarks to me this week, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was trying to tell listeners, in the cut and thrust of a live interview situation, that when Hamas put guns in the hands of their adolescent sons to point at the enemy, Hamas steals their childhood, turns them into fighters & then turns them into casualty figures. It’s unbearably cruel. I wasn’t talking about babies or little children, nor was I defining what I think to be a child, it goes without saying that the deaths of innocents are always tragic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In an <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUvUWq0GLIbhstqVzFMsxguiWjawr__aTI-CeKuZQoZUfJng/viewform">open letter to the festival</a>, more than 500 writers and arts workers said that by including Conway, the festival was putting safety at risk and giving a platform to someone whose comments on the radio “seek to normalise the ongoing genocide enacted by the state of Israel against the Palestinian people”.</p>
<p>This provoked a response from Dr Nick Dyrenfurth, executive director of the John Curtin Research Centre, a left-of-centre think tank, in which he said Conway’s “crime of being Jewish” was the reason <a href="https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/festival-slammed-for-promoting-%20deborah-conway-after-palestine-comments,18359">this attempt was being made to “deplatform” her</a>.</p>
<p>In Sydney, a petition protesting against the appointment of the feminist author Clementine Ford as a co-curator of the Opera House’s <a href="https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/all-about-women">All About Women</a> festival has garnered about 6,700 signatures since it was started on 6 February. Ford has programmed three events at the festival.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.australianjewishnews.com/petition-against-%20opera-house-appearance/">petition alleges</a> Ford’s public communications since the attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023 have made “a direct and harmful” contribution to the “hateful climate” that has developed in Australia since those attacks, exemplified by a <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/australian-jews-suffer-738-per-cent-spike-in-antisemitic-abuse/news-story/33ed1f60ff568d31ce399b325bbc03a2">738% increase</a> in anti-Semitic incidents, as recorded by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.</p>
<p>Ford has not called for violence against Jewish people.</p>
<p>The MP for the Sydney seat of Vaucluse in the New South Wales Parliament, Kellie Sloane, and some Jewish community leaders have raised their concerns about Ford’s curatorship, following her involvement in <a href="https://theconversation.com/doxing-or-in-the-public-interest-free-speech-cancelling-and-the-ethics-of-the-jewish-creatives-whatsapp-group-leak-223323">the alleged “doxing”</a> of about 600 Jewish writers, artists and academics. This involved the social media sharing of personal details, including names and professions, leaked from a WhatsApp group, without their consent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/doxing-or-in-the-public-interest-free-speech-cancelling-and-the-ethics-of-the-jewish-creatives-whatsapp-group-leak-223323">Doxing or in the public interest? Free speech, 'cancelling' and the ethics of the Jewish creatives' WhatsApp group leak</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Daniel Aghion, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/political-and-jewish-leaders-raise-clementine-ford-%20curatorship-red-flag-after-creatives-doxxing/news-story/aae6e8abdd09fb3393711c3c3c9bb544">was reported as saying</a> it was “baffling” someone who had caused this kind of harm should be appearing at one of Australia’s “most prestigious forums”.</p>
<p>Some Jewish leaders, including Anti-Defamation Commission chairman, Dr Dvir Abramovich, want Ford <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/jewish-leaders-have-called-for-clementine-ford-to-be-banned-%20from-adelaide-writers-week/news-story/8252b039c71c87c80afae3fe012d03f9%20So%20far,%20none%20of%20the%20protests%20have%20resulted%20in%20any%20of%20these%20people%20being%20banned.">banned from the Adelaide Festival’s Writers’ Week</a>, which starts this weekend, on 2 March.</p>
<p>Louise Adler, director of Adelaide Writers Week, <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/adelaide-festival/adelaide-writers-week-2024-festival-hit-with-new-backlash-as-organisers-strongly-defend-program/news-story/c56fcae109190ffa206c55119d756b59">resisted calls to remove Ford</a> from the program, saying “I chose Clementine Ford because of her writing on contemporary Australian sexual politics and about her current book about marriage, which I thought was interesting.” She called her views on “other issues” on social media “immaterial”.</p>
<p>South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/jewish-leaders-have-called-for-clementine-ford-to-be-banned-from-adelaide-writers-week/news-story/8252b039c71c87c80afae3fe012d03f9">declined to get involved</a>, saying he would not be a “premier that engages in censorship at arts festivals”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-calls-to-cancel-two-palestinian-writers-from-adelaide-writers-week-justified-200165">Are calls to cancel two Palestinian writers from Adelaide Writers' Week justified?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Freedom of speech challenged</h2>
<p>Each of these cases presents a challenge to freedom of speech, for different reasons and in different ways.</p>
<p>Writers’ festivals are opportunities for the public to see and hear from people who are presumed to have thought deeply about complex issues, and who have written about them. They are also forums for the writers themselves to challenge and be challenged on their points of view.</p>
<p>In a world conditioned by the emotive views and intolerant habits of social media, where those who hold opposing views are often seen as irredeemable and even illegitimate, it requires a demanding intellectual effort to adjust to the world of the public square.</p>
<p>There, by convention, opposing views are tolerated, even respected, and questions are decided by reasoned argument based on evidence – rather than emotive, sometimes insulting, rhetoric.</p>
<p>The current debates around these festivals show our society is a fair way from making this adjustment.</p>
<p>In the Melbourne case, the problem arises because of a contestable claim in the draft program that “Aboriginal and Palestinian solidarity has a long history, a relationship that is more vital than ever in the movement to resist colonialism and speak out against atrocities”.</p>
<p>Whether or not there is a long history of solidarity between Aboriginal and Palestinian people – which Professor Langton, for one, rejects – might be debated. But the wording of the draft program presents the debate as already decided in the affirmative. That might represent the view of curator Mykaela Saunders and some other First Nations people, but clearly not all of them.</p>
<p>In the Perth case, Conway’s statement questioning whether the children killed by the Israel Defence Forces are really children is, for the most part, demonstrably false, as we see nightly on the television news. This does harm. A falsehood pollutes the community’s information pool. </p>
<p>In the Sydney and Adelaide cases, Ford’s participation in the Whatsapp leak is likewise harmful. The leak violated people’s privacy and put people’s safety at risk. The harm principle sets the boundary at which the individual’s right of free speech gives way to the larger public interest in harm prevention.</p>
<p>The case in principle against Ford is particularly strong because of the obvious harm caused by the public dissemination of people’s private information. The fact that she is not programmed to speak about the war in Gaza at her events – she is speaking about her anti-marriage book in both <a href="https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/all-about-women/play-the-girl">Sydney</a> and <a href="https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/2024-writers-week/i-do-i-don-t/">Adelaide</a> – makes no difference to this point of principle. In practice, however, banning her would risk making her into a martyr. </p>
<p>None of these festivals have responded to public pressure to change their programs, speakers or even the wording of their copy. Better still, rather than banning speakers or changing programs, festivals could arrange to include challenges on these controversial actions and words. For example, someone in Ford’s position could be invited to make the case for the WhatsApp leak and be challenged on its violation of privacy principles.</p>
<p>That way, the festivals would do their job of promoting debate. A festival where the outcome is a foregone conclusion, or where the openmindedness of the organisers is in question, is just another echo chamber.</p>
<p>Against that, there is the question of public safety, which has been raised by those who wanted Conway banned in Perth and Ford in Adelaide. The exact threat to public safety is not spelt out, but the debate shows we urgently need to learn to better negotiate this frontier between social media and the world of flesh and blood.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article has been amended to clarify the context of Deborah Conway’s remarks during her earlier radio interview.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller 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>Writers festivals navigate the fraught frontier between social media’s echo chambers of outrage and the civilised public debate of the public square. What’s the way forward in this heated atmosphere?Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2242062024-02-22T18:01:32Z2024-02-22T18:01:32ZGaza update: Biden ups the pressure on Israel as deadline for Rafah assault approaches<p>Joe Biden’s most senior Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, has arrived in Israel to push for a deal to halt the war in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. McGurk has served each successive president since joining George W. Bush’s national security team in 2005, and his presence in the region at this increasingly crucial time, as Israel prepares for a ground assault on the overcrowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, is an indication of the urgency with which the Biden administration views the situation.</p>
<p>Thus far, intransigence on both sides has scuppered various initiatives aimed at securing a ceasefire. Last week, after Benjamin Netanyahu pulled Israeli negotiators out of talks in Egypt, blaming Hamas for refusing to budge on what he called its “ludicrous” demands, Israel’s prime minister pledged to press ahead with the Rafah offensive. However, his war cabinet member Benny Gantz said this week that a deal might still be possible.</p>
<p>Failing that, the prospect of an all-out assault on Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians from across the Gaza Strip have taken refuge, on March 10 – the start of Ramadan – is very real. Casualties are likely to be enormous, unless people are given somewhere to escape to.</p>
<p>Biden has repeatedly urged Netanyahu to rethink the assault on Rafah, calling for a “credible and executable plan” for protecting and supporting the Palestinians sheltering there. And as Paul Rogers, an internationally respected expert in Middle East security issues at the University of Bradford, notes, <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-will-israel-respond-to-us-pressure-to-tread-carefully-in-rafah-there-is-a-precedent-224171">there is a precedent</a>.</p>
<p>In 1982, during the war between Israel and Lebanon, the then-US president Ronald Reagan telephoned Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to demand he call off the 11-hour bombardment of West Beirut, where thousands of fighters from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation were sheltering. “Menachem, this is a holocaust,” Reagan is reported to have said. Begin duly called off his bombers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ronald and Nancy Reagan with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and his daughter Matt Milo in the White House, Setpember 1981." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577334/original/file-20240222-30-681hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577334/original/file-20240222-30-681hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577334/original/file-20240222-30-681hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577334/original/file-20240222-30-681hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577334/original/file-20240222-30-681hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577334/original/file-20240222-30-681hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577334/original/file-20240222-30-681hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Friends in high places: Ronald and Nancy Reagan hosting a state dinner for Menachem Begin and his daughter, Matti Milo, in September 1981.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">White House Photographic Collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rogers highlights the long and close association between the Pentagon and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In a country where pretty much anyone who is anyone has served in Israel’s military, this counts for a lot. Perhaps, he writes, the IDF could put extra pressure on Netanyahu to reconsider. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-will-israel-respond-to-us-pressure-to-tread-carefully-in-rafah-there-is-a-precedent-224171">Gaza war: will Israel respond to US pressure to tread carefully in Rafah? There is a precedent</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Meanwhile, satellite images and video footage have revealed that Egypt is building what appears to be a large concrete enclosure on its side of the Rafah crossing. Analysts believe this is being prepared as a contingency for dealing with what could be hundreds of thousands of displaced persons pushed out of Gaza into the Sinai peninsula.</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>Gillian Kennedy, an Egypt specialist at the University of Southampton, has been considering what <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-israels-assault-on-rafah-approaches-egypt-prepares-for-a-flood-of-palestinian-refugees-224020">such an exodus would mean</a> for Egypt’s strongman president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. </p>
<p>Sisi is not popular at home. He may have won an election last year with 89% of the vote, but given the lack of opposition candidates, this was hardly surprising. Egypt’s economy is in a parlous state, with rampant inflation and stubbornly high unemployment, so having to host a huge influx of refugees is not something Sisi will be anticipating with much relish.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B0IzqiMirWo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Egypt building a large concrete structure on its side of the Rafah crossing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And the close relations between supporters of Hamas and Egypt’s Muslim
Brotherhood – Sisi’s implacable foes – make this prospect all the more unpalatable, Kennedy concludes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-israels-assault-on-rafah-approaches-egypt-prepares-for-a-flood-of-palestinian-refugees-224020">As Israel's assault on Rafah approaches, Egypt prepares for a flood of Palestinian refugees</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Grim in Gaza</h2>
<p>For Palestinians trapped in Gaza, meanwhile, there is the spectre of starvation. The world’s major authority on food insecurity, the IPC Famine Review Committee, estimates that 90% of Gazans are facing acute food insecurity. </p>
<p>Yara M. Asi, a food security expert at the University of Central Florida, writes that people are <a href="https://theconversation.com/israeli-siege-has-placed-gazans-at-risk-of-starvation-prewar-policies-made-them-vulnerable-in-the-first-place-222657">resorting to eating cattle feed and grass</a>. They are hunting cats for food. And things are likely to get worse, Asi observes. The UN agency responsible for coordinating aid in Gaza, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), says it will have to cease operations in March after many of its funders withdrew over Israeli allegations that UNRWA staff had taken part in the October 7 Hamas attacks. </p>
<p>And, making matters worse, Israeli bombing has destroyed bakeries, food production facilities and grocery stores. It is now estimated that, of the people facing imminent starvation in the world today, 95% are in Gaza.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israeli-siege-has-placed-gazans-at-risk-of-starvation-prewar-policies-made-them-vulnerable-in-the-first-place-222657">Israeli siege has placed Gazans at risk of starvation − prewar policies made them vulnerable in the first place</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Of course, food production facilities and shops aren’t the only things that have been reduced to rubble by the IDF during its relentless four-month assault. For decades, the people of Gaza had become used to a cycle of destruction and rebuilding writes Yousif Al-Daffaie, a researcher in the field of cultural heritage and post-war countries at Nottingham Trent University. But this time around, the devastation has been so complete that there is almost nothing left to rebuild.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1738543040560570514"}"></div></p>
<p>Most importantly for the soul of Gaza, nearly 200 sites of cultural importance have been wrecked, including an ancient harbour dating back to 800BC, a mosque that was home to rare manuscripts, and one of the world’s oldest Christian monasteries. This act of what Al-Daffaie calls <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-destruction-of-gaza-s-historic-buildings-is-an-act-of-urbicide-223672">“urbicide”</a> includes Palestine Square in Gaza City, a popular meeting place, and Gaza’s only public library on Omar Al-Mukhtar Street, one of Gaza City’s two main streets, which has been totally destroyed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-destruction-of-gaza-s-historic-buildings-is-an-act-of-urbicide-223672">The destruction of Gazaʼs historic buildings is an act of 'urbicide'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Israel: hurt, angry and isolated</h2>
<p>All the while, the world is watching. What has become clear since the vicious Hamas attack on October 7 sparked Israel’s brutal military response is the massive disconnect between how most Israelis and much of the rest of the world see this current episode. </p>
<p>Eyal Mayroz, a senior lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, says that while the outside world sees daily reports of death and suffering in Gaza, in Israel much of the media <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-israelis-and-the-rest-of-the-world-view-the-gaza-conflict-so-differently-and-can-this-disconnect-be-overcome-223188">remains focused</a> on the pain of the attack by Hamas and the plight of the 130 remaining hostages and their families.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-israelis-and-the-rest-of-the-world-view-the-gaza-conflict-so-differently-and-can-this-disconnect-be-overcome-223188">Why do Israelis and the rest of the world view the Gaza conflict so differently? And can this disconnect be overcome?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ilan Zvi Baron of Durham University and Ilai Z. Saltzman of the University of Maryland highlight the pain and anger of most Israelis since October 7. They write that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-blaming-israel-for-october-7-hamas-attack-makes-peace-less-not-more-likely-223934">reaction of some on the progressive left</a>, some of whom celebrated the Hamas attack as an act of anti-colonial resistance, is not understood in Israel. This, they say, is a problem for Israel’s peace movement, which now feels more isolated than ever and unable to pressure their government to work harder for a peaceful solution.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-blaming-israel-for-october-7-hamas-attack-makes-peace-less-not-more-likely-223934">Gaza war: blaming Israel for October 7 Hamas attack makes peace less – not more – likely</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Listen up: peace polling</h2>
<p>Finally, regular readers may recall <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-israel-failed-to-learn-from-the-northern-ireland-peace-process-220170">an article we published</a> by Colin Irwin, a researcher at the University of Liverpool whose work with “peace polling” played a key role in the negotiations which led to the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland. Irwin noted that he was set to reprise his role when Barack Obama won the US presidency in 2008, but a lack of political will and Netanyahu’s refusal to include Hamas put paid to any chance of peace talks succeeding at that stage.</p>
<p>In this week’s episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-gaza-how-opinion-polls-used-in-northern-ireland-could-pave-a-way-to-peace-224085">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>, Irwin explains how peace polling emerged from his work among Canada’s Inuit minority, and has been used from Sri Lanka to Cyprus.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-gaza-how-opinion-polls-used-in-northern-ireland-could-pave-a-way-to-peace-224085">Israel-Gaza: how opinion polls used in Northern Ireland could pave a way to peace</a>
</strong>
</em>
</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><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A selection of our coverage of the conflict in Gaza from the past fortnight.Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2226572024-02-15T13:37:47Z2024-02-15T13:37:47ZIsraeli siege has placed Gazans at risk of starvation − prewar policies made them vulnerable in the first place<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575701/original/file-20240214-20-lgpktd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C215%2C6000%2C3754&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Displaced Gazan children wait in line to receive food.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinian-children-holding-empty-pots-2-wait-in-line-to-news-photo/1993688681?adppopup=true">Belal Khaled/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The stories of hunger emerging from war-ravaged Gaza are stark: People resorting to<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/briefing/gaza-food-crisis.html"> grinding barely edible cattle feed</a> to make flour; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/middleeast/famine-looms-in-gaza-israel-war-intl/index.html">desperate residents eating grass</a>; reports of <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/israel-gaza-war-famine-news-update-ckjntk93j">cats being hunted for food</a>. </p>
<p>The numbers involved are just as despairing. The world’s major authority on food insecurity, the IPC Famine Review Committee, <a href="https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-94/en/">estimates that</a> 90% of Gazans – some 2.08 million people – are facing acute food insecurity. Indeed, of the people facing imminent starvation in the world today, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/95-percent-those-facing-starvation-world-are-gaza">an estimated 95% are in Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://ccie.ucf.edu/person/yara-asi/">expert in Palestinian public health</a>, I fear the situation may not have hit its nadir. In January 2024, many of the top funders to UNRWA, the U.N.’s refugee agency that provides the bulk of services to Palestinians in Gaza, <a href="https://theconversation.com/funding-for-refugees-has-long-been-politicized-punitive-action-against-unrwa-and-palestinians-fits-that-pattern-222263">suspended donations</a> to the agency in response to <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/allegations-against-unrwa-staff">allegations that a dozen</a> of the agency’s 30,000 employees were possibly involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas. The agency has indicated that it will no longer be able to offer <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146272">services starting in March</a> and will lose its ability to distribute food and other vital supplies during that month.</p>
<p>With at least <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-118">28,000 people confirmed dead</a> and an additional 68,000 injured, Israeli bombs have already had a catastrophic human cost in Gaza – starvation could be the next tragedy to befall the territory.</p>
<p>Indeed, two weeks after Israel initiated a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip, <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/starvation-weapon-war-being-used-against-gaza-civilians-oxfam">Oxfam International</a> reported that only around 2% of the usual amount of food was being delivered to residents in the territory. At the time, Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East director, commented that “there can be no justification for using starvation as a weapon of war.” But four months later, the siege continues to <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-humanitarian-aid-ceasefire/">restrict the distribution of adequate aid</a>.</p>
<h2>Putting Palestinians ‘on a diet’</h2>
<p>Israeli bombs have <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-deliberately-attacks-bakeries-gaza-official#:%7E:text=The%20Israeli%20missiles%20demolished%20the,others%20injured%2C%20according%20to%20Maarouf.">destroyed homes, bakeries</a>, <a href="https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/140230">food production factories</a> and grocery stores, making it harder for people in Gaza to offset the impact of the reduced imports of food.</p>
<p>But food insecurity in Gaza and the mechanisms that enable it did not start with Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/movement-and-out-gaza-2022">U.N. report from 2022</a> found that a year before the latest war, 65% of Gazans were food insecure, defined as <a href="https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/food">lacking regular access to enough safe and nutritious food</a>.</p>
<p>Multiple factors contributed to this food insecurity, not least the <a href="https://www.unicef.org/mena/documents/gaza-strip-humanitarian-impact-15-years-blockade-june-2022">blockade of Gaza</a> imposed by Israel and enabled by Egypt since 2007. All items entering the Gaza Strip, including food, become subject to Israeli inspection, delay or denial.</p>
<p>Basic foodstuff was allowed, but because of delays at the border, <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2007/07/27/gaza-almost-completely-aid-dependent">it can spoil</a> before it enters Gaza. </p>
<p>A 2009 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/jun/16/gaza-blockade-israel-food">investigation by Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz</a> found that foods as varied as cherries, kiwi, almonds, pomegranates and chocolate were prohibited entirely. </p>
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<img alt="A man delivers food to a throng of people behind a fence." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575702/original/file-20240214-30-6871gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575702/original/file-20240214-30-6871gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575702/original/file-20240214-30-6871gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575702/original/file-20240214-30-6871gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575702/original/file-20240214-30-6871gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575702/original/file-20240214-30-6871gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575702/original/file-20240214-30-6871gm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Not enough food aid to go around in Gaza.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinian-children-wait-in-line-to-receive-food-prepared-news-photo/1993688439?adppopup=true">Belal Khaled/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>At certain points, the blockade, which Israel claims is an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE78C59R/">unavoidable security measure</a>, has been loosened to allow import of more foods; for example, in 2010 Israel started to permit <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/Media/israel-signals-partial-easing-gaza-blockade/story?id=10873488">potato chips, fruit juices, Coca-Cola and cookies</a>. </p>
<p>By placing restrictions on food imports, Israel seems to be trying to put pressure on Hamas by making life difficult for the people in Gaza. In the words of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19975211">one Israeli government adviser in 2006</a>, “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”</p>
<p>To enable this, the Israeli government <a href="https://www.gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications/redlines/redlines-position-paper-eng.pdf">commissioned a 2008 study</a> to work out exactly how many calories Palestinians would need to avoid malnutrition. The report was released to the public only following a 2012 legal battle.</p>
<p>The blockade also <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-strip-the-humanitarian-impact-of-15-years-of-the-blockade-june-2022-ocha-factsheet/">increased food insecurity</a> by preventing meaningful development of an economy in Gaza.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://unctad.org/press-material/prior-current-crisis-decades-long-blockade-hollowed-gazas-economy-leaving-80">U.N. cites</a> the “excessive production and transaction costs and barriers to trade with the rest of the world” imposed by Israel as the primary cause of severe underdevelopment in the occupied territories, including Gaza. As a result, in late 2022 the <a href="https://gisha.org/en/gaza-unemployment-rate-in-the-third-quarter-of-2022/">unemployment rate in Gaza stood at around 50%</a>. This, coupled with a steady increase in <a href="https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/post.aspx?lang=en&ItemID=4403">the cost of food</a>, makes affording food difficult for many Gazan households, rendering them dependent on aid, which fluctuates frequently.</p>
<h2>Hampering self-sufficency</h2>
<p>More generally, the blockade and the multiple rounds of destruction of parts of the Gaza Strip have made food sovereignty in the territory nearly impossible. </p>
<p>Much of <a href="https://theconversation.com/gazas-food-system-has-been-stretched-to-breaking-point-by-israel-188556">Gaza’s farmland</a> is along the so-called “no-go zones,” which Israel had rendered inaccessible to Palestinians, who risk being shot if they attempt to access these areas.</p>
<p>Gaza’s fishermen are <a href="https://gisha.org/en/increase-in-israeli-navy-attacks-on-gaza-fishermen-including-children/">regularly shot at by Israeli gunboats</a> if they venture farther in the Mediterranean Sea than Israel permits. Because the fish closer to the shore are smaller and less plentiful, the average income of a fisherman in Gaza has <a href="https://emuni.si/ISSN/2232-6022/15.179-216.pdf">more than halved</a> since 2017. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, much of the infrastructure needed for adequate food production – greenhouses, arable lands, orchards, livestock and food production facilities – have been destroyed or heavily damaged in various rounds of bombing in Gaza. And <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/reviving-the-stalled-reconstruction-of-gaza/">international donors have hesitated</a> to hastily rebuild facilities when they cannot guarantee their investment will last more than a few years before being bombed again.</p>
<p>The latest siege has only further crippled the ability of Gaza to be food self-sufficient. By early December 2023, an <a href="https://observers.france24.com/en/middle-east/20231212-in-gaza-an-estimated-22-of-agricultural-land-has-been-destroyed-since-the-start-of-the-conflict">estimated 22% of agricultural land</a> had been destroyed, along with factories, farms, and water and sanitation facilities. And the full scale of the destruction may not be clear for months or years.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israel’s <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2015/09/egypt-army-flood-rafah-tunnels-palestinian-houses.html">flooding of the tunnels</a> under parts of the Gaza Strip with seawater risks killing remaining crops, leaving the land too salty and rendering it unstable and prone to sinkholes.</p>
<h2>Starvation as weapon of war</h2>
<p>Aside from the many health effects of starvation and malnutrition, <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gaza-blocking-food-supplies-gaza-will-have-life-long-impacts-children-malnutrition-rising-save-children">especially on children</a>, such conditions make people more vulnerable to disease – already a significant concern for those living in the overcrowded shelters where people have been forced to flee.</p>
<p>In response to the current hunger crisis in Gaza, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53WlmQB_pAc">Alex de Waal</a>, author of “<a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Mass+Starvation%3A+The+History+and+Future+of+Famine-p-9781509524662">Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine</a>,” has made clear: “While it may be possible to bomb a hospital by accident, it is not possible to create a famine by accident.” He argues that the war crime of starvation does not need to include outright famine – merely the act of depriving people of food, medicine and clean water is sufficient.</p>
<p>The use of starvation is <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ar/customary-ihl/v2/rule53">strictly forbidden under the Geneva Conventions</a>, a set of statutes that govern the laws of warfare. Starvation has been condemned by United Nations <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2018/sc13354.doc.htm">Resolution 2417</a>, which decried the use of deprivation of food and basic needs of the civilian population and compelled parties in conflict to ensure full humanitarian access.</p>
<p>Human Rights Watch has already accused <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza">Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war</a>, and as such it accuses the Israeli government of a war crime. The Israeli government in turn <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/netanyahu-israel-cnn-gaza-civilians-b2446067.html">continues to blame Hamas</a> for any loss of life in Gaza.</p>
<p>Yet untangling what Israel’s intentions may be – whether it is using starvation as a weapon of war, to force mass displacement, or if, as it claims, it is simply a byproduct of war – does little for the people on the ground in Gaza. </p>
<p>They require immediate intervention to stave off catastrophic outcomes. <a href="https://www.972mag.com/rafah-children-hunger-aid/">As one father in Gaza reported</a>, “We are forced to eat one meal a day – the canned goods that we get from aid organizations. No one can afford to buy anything for his family. I see children here crying from hunger, including my own children.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yara M. Asi 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>Arable land has been destroyed, as have food production sites. But even before the current operation in Gaza, Palestinians there suffered high rates of food insecurity.Yara M. Asi, Assistant Professor of Global Health Management and Informatics, University of Central FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2231752024-02-09T00:14:06Z2024-02-09T00:14:06ZIsrael-Gaza war: why did the ceasefire negotiations collapse – and can they be revived?<p>US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looked exhausted at his media conference in Israel this week as he tried to remain optimistic about prospects for a truce in the Gaza war.</p>
<p>Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comprehensively <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-mediators-search-final-formula-israel-hamas-ceasefire-2024-02-07/">rejecting</a> Hamas’s ceasefire counter-proposal, Blinken said it “creates space for an agreement to be reached”. He pledged the US would continue to “work relentlessly” to achieve a ceasefire and hostage release deal.</p>
<p>Putting aside the fact the job description of senior diplomats requires them to remain upbeat in the face of negotiating setbacks, does Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy – he has visited the Middle East five times since Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel – have any chance of success?</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Antony Blinken sounded optimistic in a press conference in Israel this week.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Where the negotiations stand</h2>
<p>Israel and the US presented a proposal to Hamas via Qatar about a week ago. It was not made public, but Qatar’s Al Jazeera news agency <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/7/blinken-in-israel-to-try-to-seal-gaza-truce-deal">reported</a> sources “close to the talks” as saying it involved an initial 40-day truce, during which Hamas would free the remaining Israeli civilian hostages it holds, followed by Israeli soldiers and the remains of dead hostages.</p>
<p>Hamas’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/world/middleeast/netanyahu-hamas-gaza-negotiations.html">counter-proposal</a>, delivered on February 7, offered freedom for all remaining hostages and the return of the deceased in a three-stage ceasefire lasting 4.5 months. In return, Israel would first release all Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails, as well as 1,500 male prisoners, including 500 serving long sentences. </p>
<p>At the same time, the Israeli military would implement a phased withdrawal of its troops from Gaza, and the ceasefire would become permanent. The obvious implication of the proposal was that Hamas would remain in control of Gaza.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising each set of proposals was unacceptable to the other party. Israel didn’t offer any guarantees that it wouldn’t resume its military campaign after the release of the hostages. And Hamas’s proposal was effectively a return to the status quo before October 7, which would be entirely unacceptable to the Netanyahu government.</p>
<p>Each proposal appeared to represent the maximalist positions of each side. As such, the standard technique of practised negotiators is to examine both proposals and look for – or try to create – common ground for a deal. Can that work now?</p>
<h2>Will Netanyahu keep negotiating?</h2>
<p>Despite Netanyahu’s stern rebuff of Hamas’s counter-proposal, a Hamas delegation has <a href="https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-785709">travelled</a> to Cairo this week for more ceasefire talks. But whether Netanyahu is prepared to keep talking will depend on his evaluation of the pressures he faces on three fronts:</p>
<p>First, Netanyahu is beholden to prominent hardliners in his right-wing government, particularly Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir threatened to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/far-rightist-threatens-quit-israel-govt-over-any-reckless-gaza-deal-2024-01-30/">bring down his government</a> over any attempt to enter a “reckless” deal with Hamas to free the hostages. </p>
<p>If Netanyahu is forced to hold new elections, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/surveys-show-gantz-holds-commanding-lead-over-netanyahu-as-war-approaches-100th-day/">opinion polls</a> show he would have very little chance of forming a new administration.</p>
<p>Second, the families of the 136 hostages still held in Gaza and their supporters hold daily demonstrations demanding the government prioritise negotiating their release over the military campaign against Hamas. </p>
<p>The news that 31 of the hostages <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-chief-military-spokesperson-31-hostages-gaza-are-dead-2024-02-06/">have been confirmed dead</a> can be expected to raise the families’ anxiety levels and increase the tempo of their protests.</p>
<p>And third, Netanyahu faces increasing pressure from the Biden administration, which is suffering <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/07/bidens-support-of-israel-leaves-him-as-isolated-as-russia-on-the-world-stage-analyst.html">reputational damage</a> across the Middle East and in the Global South because of its unconditional support (including <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/us-approves-emergency-sale-of-weapons-to-israel-bypassing-congress-/7418698.html">providing weapons</a>) for Israel’s Gaza campaign. </p>
<p>Within the US, Biden is also experiencing <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4288202-biden-progressives-anger-over-israel-hamas-conflict/">blow-back</a> from young, progressive Democrats, horrified at the Palestinian death toll, which now stands at over 27,000. That could affect his re-election prospects if they decide not to turn out for him in the November vote.</p>
<h2>For Hamas, pluses and minuses</h2>
<p>By comparison, the pressures on Hamas are of a lower order. Obviously, Israel’s military campaign, particularly its current extension into southern Gaza, is causing enormous suffering to the civilian population. But the degree to which this affects the Hamas leadership is uncertain.</p>
<p>In negotiating through Qatar and Egypt for a ceasefire, an increase in aid and, ultimately, an end to the conflict, Hamas is presumably motivated – at least partly – by a desire to reduce civilian suffering.</p>
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<p>But its main aim is unquestionably its own survival. What would force Hamas to compromise on its demands would be the capture or deaths of its senior leaders, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/400000-for-sinwar-100000-for-mohammed-deif-israel-said-to-place-bounty-on-hamas-leaders/">Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif</a>.</p>
<p>It should be noted Hamas derives some benefits from the continuing conflict. What Biden has described as Israel’s “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/12/israel-gaza-hamas-biden-netanyahu/">indiscriminate bombing</a>” campaign actually boosts Hamas’s image as a standard bearer for Palestinian rights. The Gaza war, with its horrifying human toll, has brought the Palestinians’ plight to international attention and harmed Israel’s global standing.</p>
<p>Hamas would also be aware that it does not have to defeat Israel militarily in order to win this war. It needs merely to survive. A ceasefire that left Hamas in charge of a Gaza in ruins would thus be a victory.</p>
<h2>Do negotiations stand a chance?</h2>
<p>Unless there is an unexpected development – Israel’s elimination of Sinwar and Deif, or its military locating and freeing the remaining hostages – the war is likely to continue for some months. </p>
<p>Netanyahu probably feels he has no choice, from a political perspective, but to continue prosecuting the war in the same manner, in the hope of a breakthrough. </p>
<p>His history of <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahus-unprecedented-snub-of-obama-meeting-defies-explanation/">staring down US presidents</a> means he almost certainly won’t back down under pressure from Biden. And he will continue to tell the hostages’ families that their loved ones can only be rescued by military action alone, even if their demonstrations grow in size and number. </p>
<p>To appease the families, Netanyahu may be prepared to sanction renewed temporary ceasefire offers to Hamas in an effort to win more hostage releases – but not if doing so puts his governing coalition at risk.</p>
<p>Israel also has to bear in mind the interim ruling of the International Court of Justice last month over accusations its military campaign breaches the Genocide Convention. The court has ordered Israel to produce a report by late February on measures it has taken to prevent genocide. </p>
<p>Though Netanyahu has <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-isnt-complying-with-the-international-court-of-justice-ruling-what-happens-next-222350">rejected</a> the ICJ’s ruling, he needs to take account of the views of his Western supporters who place high value on the role of the court.</p>
<p>The entrenched positions of the Netanyahu government and the Hamas leadership mean Blinken’s work is nowhere close to being done. That means more trips to the region, more shuttle diplomacy and, likely, more sleepless nights. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-isnt-complying-with-the-international-court-of-justice-ruling-what-happens-next-222350">Israel isn't complying with the International Court of Justice ruling — what happens next?</a>
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<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>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu probably feels he has no choice, from a political perspective, but to continue prosecuting the war in the same manner.Ian Parmeter, Research Scholar, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220552024-02-08T21:17:53Z2024-02-08T21:17:53ZThe war in Gaza is wiping out Palestine’s education and knowledge systems<p>Gaza’s education system has suffered significantly since Israel’s bombardment and assault on the strip began. Last month, Israel <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68023080">blew up</a> Gaza’s last standing university, Al-Israa University.</p>
<p>In the past four months, all or parts of Gaza’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/24/how-israel-has-destroyed-gazas-schools-and-universities#:%7E:text=Palestinian%20news%20agency%20Wafa%20reported,university%20in%20Gaza%20in%20stages.">12 universities</a> have been bombed and mostly destroyed. </p>
<p>Approximately <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-102-enarhe">378 schools</a> have been destroyed or damaged. The Palestinian Ministry of Education has reported the deaths of over <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/151126/file/State-of-Palestine-Humanitarian-Situation-Report-No.15-(Escalation)-17-January-2024.pdf">4,327 students, 231 teachers</a> and <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6108/Israel-kills-dozens-of-academics,-destroys-every-university-in-the-Gaza-Strip">94 professors.</a></p>
<p>Numerous <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/gaza-report-2024/?fbclid=IwAR1VqwE8t9HEb46IFQDPJhl8ZFReHyyzgCAXjPfMPIGoThfbSXBEsy-Trog">cultural heritage sites</a>, including libraries, archives and museums, have also been destroyed, damaged and plundered.</p>
<p>But the assault on Palestinian educational and cultural institutions did not begin in response to the Oct. 7 attack. Israel has a long record of <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/430540">targeted attacks</a> on Palestinian institutions that produce knowledge and culture. That history includes targeting and <a href="https://yam.ps/page-11801-en.html">assassinating</a> Palestinian intellectuals, <a href="https://www.aaiusa.org/library/i-knew-ghassan-kanafani">cultural producers</a> and political figures. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A video clip shared by ‘The New Arab,’ showing the destruction at Al-Israa University in the Gaza Strip.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is scholasticide?</h2>
<p>The destruction of education systems and buildings is known as “scholasticide,” a term first coined by Oxford professor Karma Nabulsi during the 2008-2009 Israeli assault on Gaza. Scholasticide describes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-schools">the systemic destruction of Palestinian education</a> within the context of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919X.2021.1909376">Israel’s decades-long settler colonization and occupation of Palestine</a>.</p>
<p>Recently, a group of scholars working under the name <a href="https://scholarsagainstwar.org/toolkit/">Scholars Against the War on Palestine</a> broadened the definition to include a more comprehensive picture of what is happening during the current war. They outline the intimate relationship between <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/how-israels-scholasticide-denies-palestinians-their-past-present-and-future/article_8f52d77a-b648-11ee-863d-f3411121907b.html">scholasticide and genocide</a>.</p>
<p>They say scholasticide includes the intentional <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/a-cultural-genocide-which-of-gazas-heritage-sites-have-been-destroyed">destruction of cultural heritage</a>: archives, libraries and museums. Scholasticide includes killing, causing bodily or mental harm, incarcerating, or systematically harassing educators, students and administrators. It includes besieging, closing or obstructing access to educational institutions. It can also include using universities or schools as a military base (as was done with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68023080">Al-Israa University</a>).</p>
<p>The magnitude of destruction has led them <a href="https://scholarsagainstwar.org/toolkit/">to conclude:</a> “Israeli colonial policy in Gaza has now shifted from a focus on systematic destruction to total annihilation of education.”</p>
<p>As genocide scholar Douglas Irvin-Erickson says: the original definition of genocide as first drafted by <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781351214100-2/rapha%C3%ABl-lemkin-douglas-irvin-erickson">Raphael Lemkin in 1943</a> included the idea that “attacking a culture was a way of committing genocide, and not a different type of genocide.” </p>
<h2>The International Court of Justice</h2>
<p>During the recent genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa argued that <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf">Palestinian academics were being intentionally assassinated</a>.</p>
<p>Legal representative for South Africa, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f_yoal4gx8">told the court</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Almost 90,000 Palestinian university students cannot attend university in Gaza. Over 60 per cent of schools, almost all universities and countless bookshops and libraries have been damaged and destroyed. Hundreds of teachers and academics have been killed, including deans of universities and leading Palestinian scholars. Obliterating the very future prospects of the future education of Gaza’s children and young people.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-sum-01-00-en.pdf">On Jan. 26, in a landmark ruling, the ICJ</a> ordered Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza.</p>
<h2>Attempting to eliminate Palestinian futures</h2>
<p>Scholasticide is not an event. It’s part of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919X.2021.1975478">colonial continuum</a> of attacking and destroying a people’s educational life, knowledge systems and plundering material culture and cultural heritage.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2017.46.4.75">targeted killing of the educated class</a> is intended to make it difficult for Palestinians to restore the political and socio-economic conditions needed to survive and rebuild Gaza.</p>
<p>This systematic destruction is at the core of the settler colonial “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240">logic of elimination</a>.” It has also been applied to Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2012.10648833">logic</a> drives a settler population to replace Indigenous peoples in their aim to establish a new society. </p>
<p>For example, this logic was exercised <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/palestine-nakba-9781848139718/">during the 1948 Nakba</a>. Thousands of <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/78440">Palestinian books</a>, manuscripts, libraries, archives, photographs, cultural artifacts and cultural property <a href="https://journal.radicallibrarianship.org/index.php/journal/article/view/54">were looted, destroyed or damaged</a> by Zionist militias. In 1948, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-Palestine/Ilan-Pappe/9781851685554">Palestinian schools were destroyed or damaged</a> or later appropriated for use by the new Israeli state. </p>
<h2>Resistance: Palestinian history and culture</h2>
<p>Despite the ongoing attempts to erase Palestinian history, culture and memory, Palestinians have found ways to resist their erasure. In the 1960s and ‘70s, <a href="https://palestinianstudies.org/workshops/2023/palestinian-revolutionary-tradition-and-global-anti-colonialism">an anti-colonial revolutionary tradition</a>, produced and influenced by intellectual and political thought, was strengthened. </p>
<p>It helped to create <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1650753">infrastructures</a> for the survival, mobilization and development of the Palestinian people and their national movement. It cultivated transnational relationships of solidarity. It helped displaced Palestinians, separated across geographies, to preserve their identity and reorganize themselves politically.</p>
<p>The intellectual and political thought of this period was <a href="https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/28899">passed onto</a> the generations that followed. It influenced educational and political programs, cultural development and practices of resistance. Especially during the First Intifada from 1987-1993. This enabled Palestinians to stay steadfast in their struggle against colonial violence across time and space. Palestinian education and culture form <a href="https://www.newarab.com/analysis/israels-archaeological-war-palestinian-cultural-heritage">the backbone</a> of the right to self-determination. This is why Israel frequently targets Palestinian education and culture. </p>
<p>Palestinians have endured <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n20/karma-nabulsi/diary">several periods of intense attacks</a> on their cultural and educational life. This includes the June 1967 war, Israel’s 1982 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/06/israel7">invasion of Lebanon during which a number of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s institutions were destroyed</a> and the First and Second Intifadas.</p>
<p>Following Israel’s destruction of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44746845">the Palestine Research Center in Lebanon in 1982</a>, Palestinian poet <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/palestinian-identity/">Mahmoud Darwish said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“He who steals land does not surprise us by stealing a library. He who kills thousands of innocent civilians does not surprise us by killing paintings.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man in glasses wears a suit and tie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote about everyday grief. (Photo is from 1980)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Syrian News Agency/Al Sabah)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2022.2114778">colonial theft</a> continues unabashed. Cultural heritage has been <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/gaza-report-2024/?fbclid=IwAR2QpiHfxSB6939yfyipOLY6zVYTED_rQN7JVxTq33UCinF_-3U1xNuQFzE">annihilated, damaged or plundered</a> in this war. During the bombing of Al-Israa University in January, Israel also targeted the National Museum. Licensed by the Ministry of Antiquities, the museum housed over <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-obliterates-gazas-last-university-amid-boycott-calls">3,000 rare artifacts, which were looted</a>. </p>
<p>Most academic institutions around the world remain silent about Israel’s scholasticide. But others are speaking out. Globally, this includes <a href="https://lithub.com/israel-has-damaged-or-destroyed-at-least-13-libraries-in-gaza/">Librarians and Archivists with Palestine</a> and some <a href="https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/destruction-of-palestinian-education-system">academic associations</a> and faculty groups. The ICJ’s recent order to Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza may motivate other scholars and institutions to consider breaking their silence on scholasticide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chandni Desai 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>Scholars say Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s schools, universities and museums are part of an ongoing project to destroy Palestinian people, identity and ideas.Chandni Desai, Assistant professor, Education, University of TorontoLicensed 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>
<blockquote>
<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>
</blockquote>
<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>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1751531837095023043"}"></div></p>
<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/2225862024-02-05T22:32:00Z2024-02-05T22:32:00ZCutting UNRWA’s funding will have dire humanitarian consequences<p>Shortly after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) <a href="https://theconversation.com/ruling-by-uns-top-court-means-canada-and-the-u-s-could-be-complicit-in-gaza-genocide-222110">issued its ruling</a> in the case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/document-spells-allegations-12-employees-israel-participated-hamas-106757218">Israel accused</a> 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) of being involved in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. In response, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/26/middleeast/unrwa-fires-staff-members-october-7-attacks-intl/index.html">UNRWA said it fired staff</a> accused of involvement.</p>
<p>Israel demanded that donor countries cease all funding to UNRWA and claimed the organization is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-un-aid-refugees-29932f8d12c4fa748daa03e3689dc536">supporting Hamas</a>. Additionally, Israel called for the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-seek-to-end-unrwa-gaza-activities-after-staffers-fired-for-oct-7-involvement/">cessation of UNRWA activities in Gaza after the war</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/news-releases/gaza-strip-humanitarian-crisis-deepens-time-funding-suspensions-put-unrwa-aid">Sixteen mostly western countries,</a> including Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, announced they were suspending their funding to UNRWA. </p>
<p>Western government officials <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/28/world/middleeast/gaza-unrwa-hamas-israel.html">said they have not been able to verify the allegations</a>. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/blinken-says-evidence-of-unrwa-staffers-oct-7-involvement-highly-highly-credible/">recently said</a>, “we haven’t had the ability to investigate [the allegations] ourselves. But they are highly, highly credible.” </p>
<p>While Canada <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-aid-gaza">pledged $40 million</a> for Palestinians in Gaza through alternative humanitarian channels, others like the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, Japan, Italy and Switzerland have completely suspended their aid, collectively representing over 60 per cent of UNRWA’s budget.</p>
<p>UNRWA has warned that unless funding is restored it may need to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/unrwa-could-shut-down-by-end-february-if-funding-does-not-resume-2024-02-01/">shut down by the end of February</a>. This decision may have serious consequences, not only for Palestine, but also Israel and the broader region.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1753109659739631762"}"></div></p>
<h2>What is UNRWA?</h2>
<p>UNRWA was established in 1949, and has been pivotal in providing humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees since its inception. Following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782/">Nakba (Catastrophe)</a> in 1948, the agency was formed to respond to the urgent needs of the displaced Palestinian population. </p>
<p>It currently supports over <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/1/what-is-unrwa-and-why-it-is-important-for-palestinians">six million Palestinians</a>, employing more than 30,000 staff members, with a significant portion dedicated to operations in Gaza. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.unrwa.org/what-mandate-unrwa-0">Operating under a mandate from the UN General Assembly</a>, UNRWA offers essential assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees across the Levant, including Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza. </p>
<p>UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently said “<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1146067">UNRWA is the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza</a>,” while UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said providing humanitarian assistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is “completely dependent on UNRWA being adequately funded and operational.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/funding-for-refugees-has-long-been-politicized-punitive-action-against-unrwa-and-palestinians-fits-that-pattern-222263">Funding for refugees has long been politicized − punitive action against UNRWA and Palestinians fits that pattern</a>
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<h2>Israel’s accusations</h2>
<p>A recent article in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-halts-funding-for-u-n-agency-amid-claims-staff-took-part-in-oct-7-attacks-3247918b"><em>Wall Street Journal</em></a> cited an Israeli “intelligence dossier” claiming 10 per cent of the <a href="https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2024/02/89970/gaza-aid-operations-peril-amid-funding-crisis">13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza</a> have ties to armed groups. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has said <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/db240129.doc.htm">Israel has not yet shared the dossier with the United Nations</a>.</p>
<p>While these accusations are serious, maintaining an objective approach and refraining from drawing hasty conclusions about the <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/who-we-are/organizational-structure">UNRWA’s 30,000 employees</a> is crucial. The 12 employees accused of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack represent 0.04 per cent of the agency’s staff.</p>
<p>There are questions to be answered about the functioning of the UN agency, particularly regarding its recruitment and staff supervision processes. However, it would be misguided to generalize the conduct of one member or 12 to the entire organization. Particularly as the evidence Israel cites has not been made public.</p>
<h2>Funding cuts aren’t new</h2>
<p>Israel has long sought to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/1/31/israels-allegations-unrwa-effort-eliminate-agency">dismantle UNRWA</a> and the agency has faced the threat of funding cuts in the past. In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/31/trump-to-cut-all-us-funding-for-uns-main-palestinian-refugee-programme">cut funding</a> claiming it was an “irredeemably flawed operation.”</p>
<p>Trump’s proposed “<a href="https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/deal-of-the-century-what-is-it-and-why-now/">deal of the century</a>” was based on sidelining the Palestinians in a bid to push for normalization between Israel and Arab governments. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-so-called-mideast-peace-plan-dispossesses-palestinians-132182">Trump’s so-called Mideast 'peace plan' dispossesses Palestinians</a>
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<p>Normalization has sparked controversy in Palestine and the broader region, particularly when it comes to the question of Palestinian refugees. Under Trump’s proposals, UNRWA would be dissolved and Palestinian refugees would lose their international legal status, a measure that would be challenging the historical right of return of Palestinian refugees.</p>
<p>UN General Assembly <a href="https://fmep.org/resource/un-general-assembly-resolution-194/">Resolution 194</a>, passed in 1948, enshrines the right of Palestinian refugees to return home and receive compensation for losses suffered. UNRWA is an organization that recognizes the status of Palestinian refugees and, by extension, their right to return at some point.</p>
<p>Palestinians, determined not to compromise their historical rights, rejected Trump’s agreement in the face of <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948322497602220032">political</a> and financial pressures.</p>
<p>It is also important to contextualize the allegations against UNRWA within Israel’s — and the United States’s — broader relationship with the UN. In 2019, both countries announced they were pulling out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-and-israel-officially-withdraw-from-unesco">claiming it has an anti-Israel bias</a>.</p>
<p>In the months since Oct. 7, Israeli officials have <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/antonio-guterres-must-go-israel-want-un-chief-out/">called for the resignation</a> of the UN Secretary-General, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-says-israel-will-not-renew-visa-top-aid-official-2023-12-01/">denied UN staff visas</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/icj-decision-south-africa-israel-genocide-1.7095027">rejected the ICJ’s ruling</a>. </p>
<p>The humanitarian crisis in Gaza grows more dire by the day. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/jan/30/how-war-destroyed-gazas-neighbourhoods-visual-investigation">Vital infrastructure</a>, such as schools and hospitals, has been destroyed or severely damaged. </p>
<p>If UNRWA is unable to function, it could heighten political and social tensions in the region, especially in the countries hosting Palestinians, which will directly feel the repercussions of funding cuts. </p>
<p>It is imperative that foreign countries do not worsen the situation, but instead take steps to mitigate these negative repercussions and work towards finding humane, respectful and sustainable long-term solutions for the region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emilie El Khoury receives funding for her postdoctoral research at Queen's University from Queen’s Research Opportunities Postdoctoral Fund.</span></em></p>Recent moves to cut UNRWA’s funding are not the first time the UN agency has come under threat.Emilie El Khoury, Postdoctoral fellow at Queen's University's Centre for International Policy and Defence (CIDP), Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209412024-02-05T22:24:10Z2024-02-05T22:24:10ZThe uncertain fate of patients needing life-saving dialysis treatment in Gaza<p>More than 100 days into the brutal assault on Gaza, over <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146157">27,000 Palestinians have been killed — of whom 60 per cent have been children and women</a> — and 66,000 injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).</p>
<p>The destruction of Gaza’s health-care system has been catastrophic. The <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1145317#:%7E:text=Hundreds%20of%20facilities%20hit,seven%20deaths%20and%2052%20injuries.">WHO says</a> that, as of Jan. 5, there have been more than 600 attacks on health-care facilities, with 26 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza severely damaged and 79 ambulances targeted. Over <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q203">300 health-care workers have been killed and over 200 have been detained by Israeli forces</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.msf.org/letter-gaza-un-security-council">In an open letter</a> to the United Nations Security Council, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) president Christos Christou wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Israel has shown a blatant and total disregard for the protection of Gaza’s medical facilities. We are watching as hospitals are turned into morgues and ruins. These supposedly protected facilities are being bombed, are being shot at by tanks and guns, encircled and raided, killing patients and medical staff.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of the resources within the collapsing health-care system in Gaza are directed towards treating acute trauma victims, such as the injured <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/baby-saved-gaza-rubble-after-mother-killed-israeli-strike-2023-12-29/">babies pulled from rubble</a>, the toddlers requiring <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gazas-child-amputees-face-further-risks-without-expert-care-2024-01-04/">limb amputations</a> and the civilians suffering from <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gaza-strip-msf-treating-patients-severe-burns-following-airstrike">severe burn injuries</a>. This leaves patients with chronic life-threatening diseases, such as cancer, heart failure and end-stage kidney disease, with severely limited access to the ongoing medical care they need to survive.</p>
<h2>Patients unable to access care for chronic conditions</h2>
<p>As nephrologists and internal medicine physicians, we are gravely concerned about patients in Gaza with chronic diseases who are unable to access care. There are more than <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/25/terrifying-hope-shrinks-for-gazas-dialysis-patients-at-packed-hospitals">1,100 dialysis patients, including 38 children, in Gaza</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://kidney.ca/Kidney-Health/Living-With-Kidney-Failure/Dialysis">Hemodialysis</a> is a treatment for patients with kidney failure that involves removing blood from the patient’s circulation and circulating it through a dialysis machine that clears toxins and removes excess fluid. Without adequate dialysis, fluid and toxins accumulate and patients typically die within days to weeks from respiratory failure or cardiac arrest. </p>
<p>Dialysis is a resource-intensive therapy that requires a dialysis facility, dialysis machines, filters, water supply and fuel, along with a team of technicians, nurses and nephrologists. Each one of these components has been severely and directly compromised since Israel’s assault on Gaza. </p>
<p>Israel’s complete blockade of food, fuel and water has left over <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/500000-people-gaza-face-catastrophic-hunger-unrwa/story?id=106593939">500,000 Gazans facing catastrophic hunger</a> according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and Gazan children face a <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/barely-drop-drink-children-gaza-strip-do-not-access-90-cent-their-normal-water-use">90 per cent reduction in access to water</a>.</p>
<p>Several hospitals, including Al-Aqsa, reported being completely out of fuel, putting all patients in grave danger, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/13/blackout-in-gazas-al-aqsa-hospital-as-fuel-runs-out-babies-at-high-risk">particularly those on life support, babies in incubators and those requiring dialysis</a>. </p>
<p>Even before the current conflict, the 16-year blockade of Gaza put the lives of kidney failure patients at risk due to chronic shortages of fuel and medical supplies. Al Jazeera reports that since Oct. 7, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/25/terrifying-hope-shrinks-for-gazas-dialysis-patients-at-packed-hospitals">the number of patients at Al-Aqsa Hospital requiring dialysis has more than doubled</a> from 143 to about 300, including 11 children, who have just 24 dialysis machines between them. </p>
<p>This has forced dialysis units to significantly cut treatments, with patients receiving two-hour sessions rather than the typically prescribed 3.5-hour treatments. Treatment frequency, typically prescribed three times weekly, are now only available one or two times per week. </p>
<p>This decrease in treatment time and frequency is grossly insufficient to sustain life. But in a health-care system under assault, patients are fortunate to receive any dialysis at all. </p>
<h2>Patients needing life-saving treatment</h2>
<p>Ismail Al Tawil was a 44-year-old patient in Gaza who died of kidney failure after he was unable to access dialysis. In an interview with Al-Jazeera’s AJ+ social media arm, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ajplus/reel/C15bdLAOVVi/">his widow described desperately trying to get him to dialysis at Al-Shifa hospital</a>, but being shot at by Israeli snipers who surrounded the hospital. </p>
<p>She then attempted to access dialysis at Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals, but both facilities had insufficient capacity to treat him. </p>
<p>Since Oct. 7, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/most-gazas-population-remains-displaced-and-harms-way">1.9 million people or 85 per cent of the population of Gaza have been internally displaced</a>, according to Human Rights Watch. This is a tremendous challenge for dialysis patients who are faced with the uncertainty of when, where or if they will access their life-saving therapy. </p>
<p>Anssam, age 12, was displaced from Jabaliya in northern Gaza to seek treatment in Deir El Balah in central Gaza. She had gone 15 days without dialysis and had to leave with her mother to receive life-saving medical treatment. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/palestine-israel/2023/12/18/gaza-dialysis-patients-hospital/">In an interview with <em>The National News</em></a>, Anssam said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I hope for this war to end and for us to go back to the way we were, happy and playing, and to go back to doing dialysis three times a week… Now, without filters, I cannot have dialysis and so I will die. My life depends on dialysis.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Loss of medical personnel</h2>
<p>Beyond the destruction of health-care facilities and a critical shortage of supplies, the loss of medical personnel may have the most devastating and longest-lasting impact on the health-care system in Gaza. </p>
<p>Dr. Hammam Alloh was one of the only nephrologists in Gaza, <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/13/medical_workers_killed_colleagues_mourn_hammam">described as a committed physician and a beacon of light by his colleagues</a>. He was 36 years old and a father of two young children. He had hopes to expand dialysis care in Gaza and build a nephrology educational training program.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gaza-hamman-alloh-killed-1.7027623">He was killed on Nov. 12</a> by an <a href="https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/hammam-alloh">Israeli airstrike to his family’s home</a>, where he was taking a short rest after a busy shift at Al Shifa Hospital. His loss resonated far beyond his family, patients and colleagues in Gaza. Dr. Alloh’s <a href="https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/11/19/714879/humans-of-gaza-hammam-alloh-nephrologist-alshifa-hospital">courage and dedication has become a powerful source of inspiration</a> for physicians and health-care workers around the world. </p>
<p>Multiple sources have reported the number of civilians who have been killed by the bombs and bullets during the assault on Gaza. We may never know how many cancer patients will die from lack of chemotherapy; or diabetics from lack of insulin; or kidney failure patients from inadequate dialysis. The consequences of the collapsed health-care system in Gaza will be felt for years to come. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/chilling-effect-pro-palestinian-1.7064510">attempts to silence, intimidate and smear health-care workers</a> for calling out the atrocities in Gaza have been well documented. These efforts not only attempt to rob us of our freedom of speech, but of our professional and moral duty as physicians to promote global health and protect the vulnerable. </p>
<p>As physicians, we will not be silent as our colleagues in Gaza are being killed, as hospitals are being targeted and attacked, and as vulnerable patients are endangered. We <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1145462">join the UN</a>, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02627-2">WHO</a>, <a href="https://www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/msf-immediate-ceasefire-is-needed-in-gaza-to-stop-the-bloodshed/">MSF</a> and the <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/what-we-do/working-internationally/our-international-work/bma-position-israel-gaza-conflict">British Medical Association</a>, along with millions around the world, who call for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid. </p>
<p>We stand in solidarity with the true health-care heroes of Gaza who continue to work in harrowing conditions, and we honour the legacies of those like Dr. Alloh who lost their lives while upholding the highest values of our profession.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220941/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>Patients with kidney failure need regular dialysis treatments to survive. However, the equipment, supplies and medical staff needed for dialysis have been largely destroyed by the assault on Gaza.Ali Iqbal, Transplant Nephrologist, Assistant Professor of Medicine, McMaster UniversityAliya Khan, Clinical professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster UniversityBen Thomson, Masters of Public Health student, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2222632024-02-01T13:40:51Z2024-02-01T13:40:51ZFunding for refugees has long been politicized − punitive action against UNRWA and Palestinians fits that pattern<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572695/original/file-20240201-17-5uj2y7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C197%2C4078%2C2546&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinians await the distribution of UNRWA flour.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-who-left-their-homes-and-took-refuge-in-rafah-news-photo/1899261787?adppopup=true">Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At least a dozen countries, including the U.S., have <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1145987">suspended funding to the UNRWA</a>, the United Nations agency responsible for delivering aid to Palestinian refugees.</p>
<p>This follows allegations made by Israel that <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/at-least-12-u-n-agency-employees-involved-in-oct-7-attacks-intelligence-reports-say-a7de8f36">12 UNRWA employees participated</a> in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The UNRWA responded by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-palestinian-refugee-agency-investigates-staff-suspected-role-israel-attacks-2024-01-26/">dismissing all accused employees</a> and opening an investigation. </p>
<p>While the seriousness of the accusations is clear to all, and the U.S. has been keen to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/us/politics/aid-gaza-israel.html">downplay the significance</a> of its pause in funding, the action is not in keeping with precedent.</p>
<p>Western donors did not, for example, defund other U.N. agencies or peacekeeping operations amid accusations of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/11/un-peacekeeping-has-sexual-abuse-problem">sexual assault</a>, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-un-general-assembly-president-and-five-others-charged-13-million-bribery-scheme">corruption</a> or <a href="https://www.hrw.org/legacy/summaries/s.bosnia9510.html">complicity in war crimes</a>.</p>
<p>In real terms, the funding cuts to the UNRWA will affect <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/gaza-strip">1.7 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza</a> along with an additional 400,000 Palestinians without refugee status, many of whom benefit from the UNRWA’s infrastructure. Some critics have gone further and said depriving the agency of funds <a href="https://jacobin.com/2024/01/unrwa-defunding-gaza-israel">amounts to collective punishment</a> against Palestinians.</p>
<p>Refugee aid, and humanitarian aid more generally, is theoretically meant to be neutral and impartial. But as experts in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/reluctant-reception/558E2A93FF99B8F295347A8FA2053698">migration</a> <a href="https://www.routledge.com/UN-Global-Compacts-Governing-Migrants-and-Refugees/Micinski/p/book/9780367218836">and</a> <a href="https://press.umich.edu/Books/D/Delegating-Responsibility">international relations</a>, we know funding is often used as a foreign policy tool, whereby allies are rewarded and enemies punished. In this context, we believe the cuts in funding for the UNRWA fit a wider pattern of the politicization of aid to refugees, particularly Palestinian refugees.</p>
<h2>What is the UNRWA?</h2>
<p>The UNRWA, short for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, was established two years after about <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes</a> during the months leading up to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent Arab-Israeli war.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man carrying luggage wades through water while another lifts an elderly man on his shoulders." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572692/original/file-20240201-15-47521c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572692/original/file-20240201-15-47521c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572692/original/file-20240201-15-47521c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572692/original/file-20240201-15-47521c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572692/original/file-20240201-15-47521c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572692/original/file-20240201-15-47521c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572692/original/file-20240201-15-47521c.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinians flee their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.</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">Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Prior to the UNRWA’s creation, international and local organizations, many of them religious, provided services to displaced Palestinians. But after <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/refuge-and-resistance/9780231202855">surveying the extreme poverty</a> and dire situation pervasive across refugee camps, the U.N. General Assembly, including all Arab states and Israel, voted to create the UNRWA in 1949. </p>
<p>Since that time, <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do">the UNRWA has been the primary aid organization</a> providing food, medical care, schooling and, in some cases, housing for the 6 million Palestinians living across its five fields: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, as well as the areas that make up the occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank and Gaza Strip. </p>
<p>The mass displacement of Palestinians – known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">Nakba, or “catastrophe</a>” – occurred prior to the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/who-we-are/1951-refugee-convention">1951 Refugee Convention</a>, which defined refugees as anyone with a well-founded fear of persecution owing to “events occurring in Europe before 1 January 1951.” Despite a <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/legacy-pdf/4ec262df9.pdf">1967 protocol extending the definition</a> worldwide, Palestinians are still excluded from the primary international system protecting refugees.</p>
<p>While the UNRWA is responsible for providing services to Palestinian refugees, the United Nations also created the U.N. Conciliation Commission for Palestine in 1948 to seek a <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/4fe2e5672.html">long-term political solution</a> and “to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation.”</p>
<p>As a result, the UNRWA does not have a mandate to push for the traditional durable solutions available in other refugee situations. As it happened, the conciliation commission was active only for a few years and has since been sidelined in favor of the U.S.-brokered peace processes.</p>
<h2>Is the UNRWA political?</h2>
<p>The UNRWA has been <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/palestinian-refugees-dispossession">subject</a> to political headwinds since its inception and especially during periods of heightened tension between Palestinians and Israelis.</p>
<p>While it is a U.N. organization and thus ostensibly apolitical, it has <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/refuge-and-resistance/9780231202855">frequently been criticized</a> by Palestinians, Israelis as well as donor countries, including the United States, for acting politically.</p>
<p>The UNRWA performs statelike functions across its five fields – including education, health and infrastructure – but it is restricted in its mandate from performing political or security activities.</p>
<p>Initial Palestinian objections to the UNRWA stemmed from the organization’s early focus on economic integration of refugees into host states.</p>
<p>Although the UNRWA officially adhered to the U.N. General Assembly’s <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/content/resolution-194">Resolution 194</a> that called for the return of Palestine refugees to their homes, U.N., U.K. and U.S. <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/refuge-and-resistance/9780231202855">officials searched</a> for means by which to resettle and integrate Palestinians into host states, viewing this as the favorable political solution to the Palestinian refugee situation and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this sense, Palestinians perceived the UNRWA to be both highly political and actively working against their interests.</p>
<p>In later decades, the UNRWA <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/refuge-and-resistance/9780231202855">switched its primary focus</a> from jobs to education at the urging of Palestinian refugees. But the UNRWA’s education materials were <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/refuge-and-resistance/9780231202855">viewed</a> by Israel as further feeding Palestinian militancy, and the Israeli government insisted on checking and approving all materials in Gaza and the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman holds a poster stating'Don't Defund UNRWA'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572697/original/file-20240201-17-qxb5zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572697/original/file-20240201-17-qxb5zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572697/original/file-20240201-17-qxb5zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572697/original/file-20240201-17-qxb5zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572697/original/file-20240201-17-qxb5zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572697/original/file-20240201-17-qxb5zr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572697/original/file-20240201-17-qxb5zr.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">A protester is removed by members of the U.S. Capitol Police during a House hearing on Jan. 30, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protester-leslie-angeline-of-codepink-is-removed-by-members-news-photo/1973436909?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Israel has <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/refuge-and-resistance/9780231202855">long been suspicious</a> of the UNRWA’s role in refugee camps and in providing education, the organization’s operation, which is internationally funded, <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/east-mediterranean-mena/israelpalestine/242-unrwas-reckoning-preserving-un-agency-serving-palestinian-refugees">also saves</a> Israel millions of dollars each year in services it would be obliged to deliver as the occupying power.</p>
<p>Since the 1960s, the U.S. – UNRWA’s primary donor – and other Western countries have <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/refuge-and-resistance/9780231202855">repeatedly expressed their desire</a> to use aid to prevent radicalization among refugees.</p>
<p>In response to the increased presence of armed opposition groups, the <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/refuge-and-resistance/9780231202855">U.S. attached a provision</a> to its UNRWA aid in 1970, requiring that the “UNRWA take all possible measures to assure that no part of the United States contribution shall be used to furnish assistance to any refugee who is receiving military training as a member of the so-called Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) or any other guerrilla-type organization.”</p>
<p>The UNRWA adheres to this requirement, even publishing an annual list of its employees so that host governments can vet them, but it also <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/east-mediterranean-mena/israelpalestine/242-unrwas-reckoning-preserving-un-agency-serving-palestinian-refugees">employs 30,000 individuals</a>, the vast majority of whom are Palestinian.</p>
<p>Questions over the links of the UNRWA to any militancy has led to the rise of Israeli and international <a href="https://cufi.org/issue/unrwa-teachers-continue-to-support-antisemitism-terrorism-on-social-media-un-watch/">watch groups</a> that document the social media activity of the organization’s large Palestinian staff.</p>
<h2>Repeated cuts in funding</h2>
<p>The United States has used its money and power within the U.N. to block criticism of Israel, vetoing at least <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/scact_veto_table_en.htm">45 U.N. resolutions</a> critical of Israel.</p>
<p>And the latest freeze is not the first time the U.S. has cut funding to the UNRWA or other U.N. agencies in response to issues pertaining to the status of Palestinians.</p>
<p>In 2011, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE79U5ED/#:%7E:text=WASHINGTON%20(Reuters)%20%2D%20The%20United,grant%20the%20Palestinians%20full%20membership.">U.S. cut all funding to UNESCO</a>, the U.N. agency that provides educational and cultural programs around the world, after the agency voted to admit the state of Palestine as a full member.</p>
<p>The Obama administration defended the move, claiming it was required by a 1990s law to defund any U.N. body that admitted Palestine as a full member. </p>
<p>But the impact of the action was nonetheless severe. Within just four years, UNESCO was <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1758-5899.12459">forced to cut its staff in half</a> and roll back its operations. President Donald Trump later <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-and-israel-officially-withdraw-from-unesco">withdrew the U.S. completely from UNESCO</a>.</p>
<p>In 2018, the Trump administration paused its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/us/politics/trump-unrwa-palestinians.html">US$60 million contribution to the UNRWA</a>. Trump claimed the pause would create political pressure for Palestinians to negotiate. President Joe Biden restarted U.S. contributions to the UNRWA in 2021.</p>
<h2>Politicization of refugee aid</h2>
<p>Palestinian are not the only group to suffer from the politicization of refugee funding.</p>
<p>After World War II, states established different international organizations to help refugees but strategically excluded some groups from the refugee definition. For example, the U.S. funded the <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/last-million-eastern-european-displaced-persons-postwar-germany">U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to help resettle displaced persons after World War II</a> but resisted Soviet pressure to forcibly repatriate Soviet citizens. </p>
<p>The U.S. also created a separate organization, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ijrl/article-abstract/1/4/501/1598187">the precursor to the International Organization for Migration</a>, to circumvent Soviet influence. In many ways, the UNRWA’s existence and the exclusion of Palestinian refugees from the wider refugee regime parallels this dynamic.</p>
<p>Funding for refugees has also been politicized through the earmarking of voluntary contributions to U.N. agencies. Some agencies receive funding from U.N. dues; but the UNRWA, alongside the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, receive the majority of their funding from voluntary contributions from member states.</p>
<p>These contributions can be earmarked for specific activities or locations, leading to donors such as the <a href="https://www.peio.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/PEIO12_paper_107.pdf">U.S. or European Union dictating which refugees get aid and which do not</a>. Earmarked contributions amounted to nearly <a href="https://unsceb.org/fs-revenue-agency">96% of the UNHCR’s budget, 96% of the IOM’s budget and 74% of UNRWA funding in 2022</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, any cuts to UNRWA funding will affect its ability to service Palestinian refugees in Gaza – especially at a time when so many are <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/middleeast/famine-looms-in-gaza-israel-war-intl/index.html">facing hunger, disease and displacement</a> as a result of war.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222263/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 organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The US is among more than a dozen countries to freeze funding to UN agency providing aid to displaced Gazans over allegations of complicity in the Oct. 7 attack.Nicholas R. Micinski, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of MaineKelsey Norman, Fellow for the Middle East, Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217222024-01-30T17:55:16Z2024-01-30T17:55:16ZIran has so far resisted direct involvement in the Gaza war, but is that changing?<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/iran-has-so-far-resisted-direct-involvement-in-the-gaza-war-but-is-that-changing" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Iran has tried to keep the war in Gaza at arm’s length by providing support for Hamas <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/04/1222880864/after-striking-throughout-the-middle-east-irans-proxies-now-become-the-targets">through armed groups it backs in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq</a>. </p>
<p>The Islamic Republic has indicated it wants neither to get directly involved in the fighting nor see the conflict escalate across the region. But as illustrated by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/politics/biden-jordan-attack-response-options/index.html">the recent drone attack by pro-Iranian militias in Jordan that killed three American soldiers</a>, the violence is spreading. Tehran may not be able to sustain its strategy much longer.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20231014-qatar-iran-turkey-and-beyond-the-galaxy-of-hamas-supporters">Tehran’s support for Hamas dates back to the 1990s</a>, though the two have never been a perfect ideological match. Hamas comes from the Sunni sect of Islam, identifying more closely with the Muslim Brotherhood than it does with Shi’a Iran. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-hamas-the-same-as-isis-the-islamic-state-group-no-and-yes-219454">Is Hamas the same as ISIS, the Islamic State group? No − and yes</a>
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<p>Relations broke down during the Syrian civil war as <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/evolution-russian-and-iranian-cooperation-syria">Tehran backed Bashar al-Assad’s regime</a> and Hamas sympathized with the Sunni opposition. However, when the fighting ebbed, the two mended fences and Hamas rejoined the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/14/irans-axis-of-resistance-is-a-potent-coalition-but-a-risky-strategy">Axis of Resistance</a>, a group of state and non-state entities centred in Iran that oppose Israel and the American presence in the region. </p>
<p>As part of the alliance, Hamas reportedly receives military equipment, training and somewhere <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/10/09/iran-support-hamas-training-weapons-israel/">between $70</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-hamas-secretly-built-mini-army-fight-israel-2023-10-13/">$350 million per year</a>, depending on the source.</p>
<h2>Important role</h2>
<p>Iran does not appear to have been involved in the planning or execution of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Indeed, United States intelligence reported Tehran <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/initial-us-intelligence-shows-hamas-attack-surprised-iranian-leaders-ny-times-2023-10-11/#:%7E:text=WASHINGTON%2C%20Oct%2011%20(Reuters),U.S.%20sources%20said%20on%20Wednesday.">was surprised</a> by events. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, as the Gaza war continues, Iran is playing an important role. Tehran provides Hamas with rhetorical support and indirect military backing through the other members of the Axis of Resistance. While not tilting the balance of power in Gaza, this has signalled to the West and Israel that the campaign against Hamas will have a cost, particularly if it escalates. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/19/1219748268/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-hamas-iran-war">There have been almost daily</a> skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli Defense Forces on the Lebanese border. In Iraq, Iranian-backed militias have launched more than <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-strikes-targets-iraq-after-us-forces-wounded-officials-2024-01-23/">150 attacks</a> against American military installations, and the pro-Iranian Houthis in Yemen have launched ballistic missiles at Israel and attacked shipping in the Red Sea.</p>
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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>
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<p>Nevertheless, Tehran’s message that it <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-axis-resistance-against-israel-faces-trial-by-fire-2023-11-15/">does not intend to get directly involved</a> in the fighting has been relayed directly to Hamas by the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei <a href="https://amwaj.media/media-monitor/is-saudi-arabia-relaying-us-messages-to-iran">and to the U.S. privately through intermediaries</a>.</p>
<p>Tehran’s stance is evident in the particular way military force has been employed. Hezbollah’s attacks have been limited in size and restricted to the area around the Lebanese border — significant enough to indicate support for Hamas, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/19/1219748268/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-hamas-iran-war">but not threatening enough</a> to justify Israel opening a second front. </p>
<p>Similarly in Iraq, the attacks have been relatively small. The strike against the Al-Asad air base in Iraq was <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-strikes-militias-iraq-iranian-backed-over-attacks-u-s-forces/">described by the Pentagon</a> as one of the largest yet, but the result was some damage to non-critical facilities and no fatalities. The U.S. retaliated with strikes of its own, but repeated the same mantra as Tehran; it did not want the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-strikes-militias-iraq-iranian-backed-over-attacks-u-s-forces/">fighting to escalate.</a> </p>
<h2>Houthis active</h2>
<p>The most active of Iran’s proxies has been, surprisingly, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67614911">Houthis in Yemen, who say that they will blockade the Red Sea until the Israelis cease military operations in Gaza</a>. By some estimates, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsegal/2024/01/28/most-surveyed-companies-are-vulnerable-to-another-supply-chain-crisis/?sh=5c94fd391bd1">90 per cent of container shipping has been diverted</a>, leading to higher prices and fractured supply lines. </p>
<p>Their attacks on shipping have provoked a series of missile and airstrikes from the U.S. and the United Kingdom, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/canada-helped-plan-but-didnt-have-assets-to-participate-in-u-s-u-k-strikes-against-houthis">with Canada playing a supporting role</a>. </p>
<p>While provocative, the risk for Tehran in this area is far less than it would be on the Lebanese border, where Israel would likely respond with a ground invasion.</p>
<p>A major conflict between Hezbollah and Israel <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/19/1219748268/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-hamas-iran-war">would be devastating</a> and unpredictable. It would put Iran’s main regional ally in jeopardy and could create conditions that would prompt Washington to attack Iran directly.</p>
<p>There’s little chance, however, of a ground invasion in Yemen, where the airstrikes appear <a href="https://www.newarab.com/analysis/saudi-arabias-balancing-act-amid-strikes-yemens-houthis">to be bolstering</a> the popularity of the Houthi leadership.</p>
<h2>On the sidelines</h2>
<p>It’s not difficult to understand why Tehran has chosen to straddle the fence between supporting Hamas and standing on the sidelines. </p>
<p>If Iran was to remain passive while Gaza is flattened by Israel, it would lose credibility. This would cost Tehran in terms of regional influence and undermine an alliance network essential to its ability to deter the U.S. and Israel. </p>
<p>A certain degree of conflict is also in Iran’s interest. Popular support for the Axis of Resistance has increased across the region, and the trend toward Israeli-Arab normalization is on hold for the foreseeable future. At the same time, though, Iran potentially has a lot to lose.</p>
<p>Iran has grown into a formidable military power, but its military, nuclear and economic infrastructure remain vulnerable to U.S.-Israeli military strikes. </p>
<p>The regime may also be politically vulnerable at home. <a href="https://www.stimson.org/2023/iranians-differ-widely-with-their-leaders-over-the-war-between-israel-and-hamas/">It is unlikely</a> the Iranian public would support a war to liberate Palestine, and given the recent anti-hijab protests and several years of simmering domestic unrest, it can no longer be taken for granted that U.S. military strikes would cause Iranians to rally around the flag.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/iranian-protesters-are-making-demands-in-charters-and-bills-of-rights-201543">Iranian protesters are making demands in charters and bills of rights</a>
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<h2>Maintaining the balance</h2>
<p>Iran’s strategy is designed to strike a balance between these two concerns, but there are a number of things that could go wrong. </p>
<p>For one, Iran cannot control how its opponents respond. In Syria, Israel raised the stakes by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/world/middleeast/iran-military-official-israel-syria.html">assassinating a high ranking member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard thought to be involved in arms transfers to Hezbollah</a>. </p>
<p>Compelled to reply directly, Iran was only able to avoid a confrontation with Israel <a href="https://amwaj.media/article/inside-story-iranian-ballistic-missiles-rock-iraqi-kurdistan">by striking targets in Iraq it claimed were associated with the Israeli Mossad</a>.</p>
<p>Even within the Axis of Resistance, the lines of command and control are imprecise. Iran’s allies have their own agendas and their own ideas about how much force to use. </p>
<p>The recent drone attack in Jordan is a case in point. Although the Islamic Resistance in Iraq — a loose group of pro-Iranian militias — has claimed responsibility, the U.S. is holding Iran accountable. </p>
<p>President Joe Biden’s administration <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-jordan-attack-iran-1.7098603">still seems reluctant to target Iran directly</a>, but the attack has ratcheted tensions up significantly. </p>
<p>It is also possible that Iran’s leadership will simply overplay its hand, particularly in the Red Sea. At a certain point, the West may lose patience with bombing Iran’s proxies and target the country itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Devine 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>Iran prefers to engage Israel through its proxies, but the risk of escalation makes this a dangerous strategy.James Devine, Associate Professor Politics and International Relations, Mount Allison UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2219652024-01-29T13:36:36Z2024-01-29T13:36:36ZIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a dilemma: Free the hostages or continue the war in Gaza?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571656/original/file-20240126-25-l606eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On Dec. 8, 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the funeral of a 25-year-old Israeli soldier who was killed in Gaza. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prime-minister-benjamin-netanyhu-attends-the-funeral-for-news-photo/1842633511?adppopup=true"> Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As Israel’s war with Hamas drags into its fourth month, some Israelis are becoming increasingly angry at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s inability to free the remaining <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/22/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-hostages">136 hostages in the Gaza Strip</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Israeli protesters have called for <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226713168/in-israel-anger-at-netanyahu-is-getting-louder">Netanyahu’s resignation</a>, while dozens of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/22/families-hostages-gaza-israel-parliament-00137069">family members of the hostages stormed</a> the Israeli parliament on Jan. 22, 2024, demanding a deal for the hostages’ release.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. spoke with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pgpEt8MAAAAJ&hl=en">Dov Waxman</a>, a scholar of Israeli politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to better understand the public pulse in Israel, and why some experts – including him – are saying that Netanyahu does not want to end the war.</em></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571658/original/file-20240126-23-mzztut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people, including several women, hold signs and shout in a nighttime shot, in front of tall, lit up buildings. One of the signs says 'Deal now.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571658/original/file-20240126-23-mzztut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571658/original/file-20240126-23-mzztut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571658/original/file-20240126-23-mzztut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571658/original/file-20240126-23-mzztut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571658/original/file-20240126-23-mzztut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571658/original/file-20240126-23-mzztut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571658/original/file-20240126-23-mzztut.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>
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<span class="caption">Families of Israeli hostages protest in Tel Aviv, calling for the Israeli government to make a deal with Hamas and get the hostages released.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/families-of-israeli-hostages-carrying-photos-and-banners-news-photo/1950955826?adppopup=true">Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>How is Israeli public opinion on the war shifting?</h2>
<p>For the first three months or so of the war, Israelis, specifically Jewish Israelis, strongly supported the war and the government’s declared goal of defeating and dismantling Hamas. That consensus and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/over-half-of-israelis-say-theyre-let-down-by-war-cabinets-handling-of-hamas-conflict/">unity are rapidly fraying</a>.</p>
<p>Netanyahu says continuing the war is the best way to release the hostages, but more and more Israelis, including the families of the hostages, are arguing that with every passing day that the war continues, the lives of the hostages are in greater danger. </p>
<p>There’s also growing doubts about whether Israel <a href="https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-777771">can actually decisively defeat and destroy Hamas</a>. More than three months into the war, Hamas is still standing and firing rockets into Israel. While Israel has assassinated mid-level Hamas commanders, Hamas leaders are still alive and able to call the shots. </p>
<h2>You have said that Netanyahu does not want to end the war. Why would that be?</h2>
<p>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/">widely unpopular</a> in Israel. Many Israelis, including some of Netanyahu’s supporters on the right, hold him accountable for the cascade of failures that resulted in Hamas’ massive incursion and horrific attack on Oct. 7, 2023. </p>
<p>To restore his domestic support, Netanyahu’s only hope is to continue the war and try to achieve the “total victory” over Hamas that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/14/netanyahu-insists-on-fight-until-total-victory-as-israel-marks-100-days-of-war">he has been promising</a>. If he fails to deliver on this, and on the release of the hostages, his Likud party is likely to lose the next election and he’ll be out of office. </p>
<h2>How does this political pressure influence Netanyahu’s response to the war?</h2>
<p>In order for Netanyahu to hold his coalition government together and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/why-is-israel-always-holding-elections-e671cfe22f9b045d2be3e65c5a60be61">avoid an election,</a> he has to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-06/ty-article/.premium/limits-to-surrender-if-pm-placates-haredim-hell-enrage-broad-public/0000018b-0127-d037-a9af-51ff9dc00000">appease the far-right</a> and ultra-Orthodox parties in his government. For the ultra-Orthodox parties, that means ensuring that their constituents receive the generous government subsidies and welfare benefits that they depend on, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/11/01/israel-hamas-haredi-idf/#">not requiring them</a> to serve in the Israel military – unlike other Israeli Jews – and maintaining the religious status quo in Israel. For the far-right parties, it means supporting <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-24/ty-article/.premium/israeli-army-weighs-plan-to-arm-west-bank-settlements-with-anti-tank-missiles/0000018d-3b7e-d32b-adcf-ff7e83330000">Israeli settlers in the West Bank</a> and expanding settlements there, and also preventing anything that will strengthen the Palestinian Authority, which the far-right wants to get rid of.</p>
<p>To keep his far-right allies in the government, Netanyahu has to block any post-war plan that gives the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-01-20-2024-ba66b165f3e5d1904d30b591199cface#">Palestinian Authority control over Gaza</a>. Merely discussing the question of post-war Gaza is treacherous for Netanyahu because the far-right is calling for Israel to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-24/ty-article/netanyahus-likud-ministers-far-right-mks-to-attend-gaza-resettlment-confab/0000018d-3b1e-d35c-a39f-bb5e38070000">reestablish Jewish settlements</a> there. The Biden administration opposes any long-term Israeli presence in Gaza and wants a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/revamped-palestinian-authority-should-govern-gaza-west-bank-says-senior-us-2023-12-14/">“revamped and revitalized”</a> Palestinian Authority to eventually return to oversee the territory. </p>
<p>Netanyahu’s way to evade these conflicting pressures is to avoid any discussion of the post-war governance of Gaza as much as possible. </p>
<p>Netanyahu has only said that Israel must have <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/damascus-airstrike-said-to-kill-iranian-revolutionary-guards/7448161.html#">security control over Gaza</a>, but what that actually entails is <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/evasive-on-postwar-gaza-netanyahu-risks-saddling-israel-with-full-responsibility/">totally unclear</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571655/original/file-20240126-27-tloa3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A soldier wearing a red beret carries a coffin covered in a blue and white cloth. People stand behind him crying." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571655/original/file-20240126-27-tloa3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571655/original/file-20240126-27-tloa3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571655/original/file-20240126-27-tloa3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571655/original/file-20240126-27-tloa3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571655/original/file-20240126-27-tloa3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571655/original/file-20240126-27-tloa3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571655/original/file-20240126-27-tloa3a.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">Mourners in Tel Aviv cry on Jan. 23, 2024, during the funeral ceremony for an Israeli soldier killed in Gaza.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mourners-cry-during-the-funeral-ceremony-of-major-ilay-levi-news-photo/1948671112?adppopup=true">Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are most Israelis increasingly focused on, regarding the war?</h2>
<p>Most Israeli Jews are focused on the fate of the hostages and on Israeli military casualties – these are the stories that dominate Israeli media coverage. The families of the hostages have made sure that their plight is not forgotten. And since some of the hostages who were released back in November are recounting their harrowing experiences in captivity, this is also keeping public attention focused on the hostages still in Gaza. </p>
<p>The deaths of Israeli soldiers in Gaza also receive a lot of attention – on Jan. 23, the Israeli military had its deadliest day since the war began when <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/23/1226305928/israel-military-deadliest-gaza-hamas-war">24 soldiers were killed</a>. Most Israeli Jews have served in the military, and most have family members or friends currently serving. So they are very connected to the military, and military deaths resonate very powerfully in Israeli society.</p>
<p>What most Israelis are not focusing on is the suffering of <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unicef-state-palestine-humanitarian-situation-report-no-15-escalation-11-17-january-2024%20in%20Gaza">Palestinian civilians in Gaza</a>. Many are not even aware of what is happening to Palestinians in Gaza, because it receives little coverage in the Israeli media. </p>
<h2>Families of the hostages are speaking out against the Israeli government and its inability to free the hostages. What kind of pressure is this creating?</h2>
<p>It has a big effect. There is great empathy for what these families are going through. There is also a strong ethos that the state has a moral obligation to rescue its citizens, including its soldiers. </p>
<p>Many people feel that the state fundamentally failed its citizens on Oct. 7 because it failed to prevent or stop the massacre and abductions that took place. So it is now especially incumbent on the government to bring the hostages home. Even if Israel defeats Hamas but doesn’t free the hostages, it will leave an open wound in Israeli society and damage, if not rupture, the relationship between the Israeli state and its citizens. </p>
<h2>Why is it unlikely that the military can free the hostages?</h2>
<p>The hostages are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/world/middleeast/gaza-hamas-israel-tunnels-hostages.html">kept underground in tunnels</a> that are hundreds of miles long. It’s likely they are frequently moved around, so it is next to impossible to even locate them. And even if they are located, actually reaching them before they are killed by their captors would be very, very difficult. </p>
<p>The only feasible option to free the hostages is to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-netanyahu-rejects-hamas-conditions-hostage-deal-which-include-outright-2024-01-21/">strike another deal</a> with Hamas. But it will be very hard for Netanyahu to accept the terms that Hamas is demanding, particularly ending the war. Netanyahu and his defense minister argue that the more military pressure Hamas is under, the more likely it is to accept a deal on terms that are acceptable to Israel. But the other members of the war cabinet, and growing numbers of Israelis, now believe Israel should make a deal to release the hostages whatever the price, even if that means ending the war without defeating Hamas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dov Waxman 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 of Israeli politics explains why Israelis are increasingly turning against Netanyahu and his promise that Israel can quickly defeat Hamas and bring Israeli hostages home.Dov Waxman, Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Israel Studies, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed 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/2221102024-01-28T14:53:39Z2024-01-28T14:53:39ZRuling by UN’s top court means Canada and the U.S. could be complicit in Gaza genocide<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/ruling-by-uns-top-court-means-canada-and-the-us-could-be-complicit-in-gaza-genocide" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The International Court of Justice has issued <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf">a ground-breaking decision</a> in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uns-top-court-orders-israel-to-prevent-genocide-in-gaza-but-fails-to-call-for-immediate-ceasefire-222080">ordering Israel to comply with six provisional measures</a> to safeguard the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from genocidal violence.</p>
<p>The court’s order is binding on Israel and formalizes the international legal obligations of other countries that are parties to the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">UN Genocide Convention</a>.</p>
<p>Properly understood, the order should dramatically alter both the foreign and domestic policy decisions of Israel’s allies, including Canada and the United States.</p>
<p>Israel and its allies cannot dismiss or minimize the importance of this decision. In granting interim relief, the court concluded that South Africa’s allegations of genocide are, at a minimum, legally and factually plausible.</p>
<h2>Other countries must act</h2>
<p>Crucially, the court expressly concluded, by an overwhelming majority, that Palestinians in Gaza face a “real and imminent risk” of genocide. This puts other countries on notice that they have an international legal duty to take steps to prevent genocide in Gaza in accordance with the court’s order.</p>
<p>As the court stated in a 2007 ruling <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/91/091-20070226-JUD-01-00-EN.pdf">when Bosnia accused Serbia of genocide</a>, countries that are parties to the Genocide Convention have an obligation to prevent and a corresponding duty to act “the instant that the state learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed.”</p>
<p>Both Canada and the U.S. have construed the court’s decision narrowly, suggesting it merely reiterates Israel’s right of self-defence and obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.</p>
<p>This is a legally indefensible reading of the court’s ruling.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/26/world/israel-hamas-gaza-news/b6568e0f-1669-55c8-b41f-0538b71e83c7?smid=url-share">U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration says</a> it believes the court’s decision is consistent with existing American policy on Israel and that it continues to view South Africa’s case as “meritless.”</p>
<p>Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2024/01/statement-by-minister-joly-on-the-international-court-of-justices-decision-on-south-africas-request-for-provisional-measures-in-its-case-against-is.html">Mélanie Joly reiterated that</a> Canada’s “support for the ICJ does not mean that we accept the premise of the case.”</p>
<p>Statements of political support by the U.S. and Canada that Israel is abiding by the laws of war — <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/04/israel-50-years-occupation-abuses">contrary to the facts</a> — <a href="https://x.com/AdHaque110/status/1751243731557056872?s=20">cannot shield</a> Israel or its allies from their legal obligations under the Genocide Convention. Those obligations — including to prevent genocide — are created via treaty and are interpreted by courts, the highest of which is the International Court of Justice.</p>
<p>The obligation to prevent genocide, combined with the court’s finding of a serious risk of genocide, means that all parties to the Genocide Convention must refrain from taking steps that would actively frustrate the effective implementation of the court’s order.</p>
<h2>Canada in violation of its obligations</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://dirco.gov.za/statement-by-south-africa-welcoming-the-provisional-measures-ordered-by-the-international-court-of-justice-against-israel/">South Africa stated</a>, “the ICJ has determined that Israel’s actions in Gaza are plausibly genocidal and has indicated provisional measures on that basis.” </p>
<p>Among other measures, the court directed Israel to “take all measures within its power to prevent the commission” of acts of genocide, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide and to “enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”</p>
<p>The court emphasized evidence from the World Health Organization indicating that “93 per cent of the population in Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger” and “that maternal and newborn death rates are expected to increase due to the lack of access to medical care.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Several Israeli flags fly in front of a giant screen showing military action." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571754/original/file-20240128-29-qcc3my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571754/original/file-20240128-29-qcc3my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571754/original/file-20240128-29-qcc3my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571754/original/file-20240128-29-qcc3my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571754/original/file-20240128-29-qcc3my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571754/original/file-20240128-29-qcc3my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571754/original/file-20240128-29-qcc3my.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">Pro-Israel activists gather next to a screen near the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands on Jan. 26, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Patrick Post)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But just hours after the court’s ruling, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/world/middleeast/un-aid-israel-oct-7-attacks.html">the U.S. announced it was suspending funding</a> for the <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/">United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East</a>. </p>
<p>The funding cuts came after Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA employees had participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas against Israel. <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/serious-allegations-against-unrwa-staff-gaza-strip">UNRWA has terminated the accused employees and launched an investigation</a>.</p>
<p>The U.S. is the biggest financial contributor to UNRWA. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/28/which-countries-have-cut-funding-to-unrwa-and-why">Several other key donor countries</a>, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2024/01/statement-by-minister-hussen-on-allegations-against-staff-of-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east.html">including Canada</a>, quickly followed suit.</p>
<p>UNRWA is the largest aid provider in Gaza and a trusted lifeline to civilians in the territory. Even if the allegations are true, defunding the entire organization <a href="https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1751554749659324847">openly defies</a> the court’s order and <a href="https://x.com/UNLazzarini/status/1751345422918959147?s=20">amounts to collective punishment of the civilian population in Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>Disturbingly, moves to defund UNRWA appear to help implement Israeli government plans to undermine the organization’s capacity to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Earlier this month, policy experts <a href="https://www.jns.org/israeli-lawmakers-ponder-unrwa-overhaul/">told the Knesset</a> that UNRWA “must be dismantled and thrown in the dustbin of history” and that “no country that is a friend of Israel should provide them any money.”</p>
<p>The ICJ found that “the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating further,” plausibly inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza. </p>
<p>Accordingly, any country’s action knowingly contributing to further deterioration would violate the obligation to prevent genocide and could amount to complicity in genocide.</p>
<h2>Canada must halt arms sales to Israel</h2>
<p>The court’s provisional measures also impact Canada’s compliance with its own laws on military exports.</p>
<p>In 2022, <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/controls-controles/military-goods-2022-marchandises-militaires.aspx?lang=eng">Canada sent more than $21 million worth of military exports to Israel</a>. The <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-19/page-4.html#h-203166">Export and Import Permits Act</a> forbids arms permits to be issued if there’s a “substantial risk” that the goods could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.</p>
<p>Because the ICJ found a serious risk of genocide in Gaza, continuing to export arms to Israel would be illegal. It would also be flagrantly inconsistent with Canada’s obligation to prevent genocide, and could expose Canada and Canadian officials to liability for participation in genocide.</p>
<p>We must reject the politics of deliberate indifference to atrocity currently on display in the Canadian government’s reactions to the ICJ ruling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222110/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heidi Matthews receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Women and Gender Equality Canada, York University and the British Academy. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Faisal A. Bhabha receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He is an advisor to the Centre for Free Expression, the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Legal Centre for Palestine. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohammad Fadel receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He is a director of Muslim Advocates, a U.S. 501(c)(3) legal education and civil rights charity. </span></em></p>The recent ruling by the International Court of Justice means Canada could be guilty of supporting genocide in Gaza by cutting aid funding and continuing military exports to Israel.Heidi Matthews, Assistant Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, CanadaFaisal A. Bhabha, Associate Professor of Law, York University, CanadaMohammad Fadel, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2204492024-01-21T12:59:15Z2024-01-21T12:59:15ZWestern moral credibility is dying along with thousands of Gaza citizens<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/western-moral-credibility-is-dying-along-with-thousands-of-gaza-citizens" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The western world’s <a href="https://aje.io/f6eanz">feeble response</a> to Israel’s attack on Gaza has severely damaged the West’s already tenuous moral credibility in the Global South and undermined the foundations of the human rights regime and international law developed after the Second World War.</p>
<p>The West claims it champions a liberal <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/articles/maintaining-the-rules-based-international-order-is-in-everyones-best-interests/">rules-based international order</a> and human rights on the global stage. This rhetoric now appears <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/16/israels-war-on-gaza-and-the-wests-credibility-crisis">completely disingenuous</a> to most of the Global South. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ukraine-russia-war-looks-very-different-outside-west-n1294280">The West’s inability to rally the world against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reflects the Global South’s rejection of what it views as western hypocrisy</a>. Few states supported Russia, but fewer accepted the West’s claim that punishing Russia was a “<a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/moral-imperative-supporting-ukraine">moral imperative</a>” when the western commitment to morality is so selective. </p>
<p>This has been particularly exemplified by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2004/9/16/annan-us-invasion-of-iraq-was-illegal">the illegal invasion of Iraq</a> by the United States in 2003 and Israel’s <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/ceirpp-legal-study2023/">illegal occupation</a> of Palestine.</p>
<h2>Russia condemned, Israel supported</h2>
<p>The West’s position on Gaza has done even more consequential damage to the notion of western global “leadership.” Even as Russia <a href="https://onu.delegfrance.org/russia-is-once-again-targeting-civilian-infrastructure">escalates its violence against civilians</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russias-new-missile-attacks-target-ukraines-arms-makers-and-logistics-2024-1">infrastructure in Ukraine</a>, most Global South states find the American condemnation of Russia <a href="https://thenewamerican.com/world-news/middle-east/turkey-accuses-west-of-hypocrisy-on-ukraine-and-gaza/">grotesquely hypocritical</a> as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/26/why-us-double-standards-on-israel-and-russia-play-into-a-dangerous-game">the United States supports Israel’s war in Gaza</a> an attacks on civilians that are even more devastating than Russia’s. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/why-hamas-and-israel-are-both-alleged-to-have-broken-international-rules-of-war">Hamas launched a brutal attack</a> on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But one war crime shouldn’t justify another. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/27/how-does-international-humanitarian-law-apply-israel-and-gaza">What Israel has done to Gaza in response</a> is exponentially worse in terms of the loss of human life and the widespread infliction of human suffering.</p>
<p>Israel is <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza">using starvation</a>, dehydration and disease as weapons of war against a captive population of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/25/over-2000-children-killed-in-gaza-a-stain-on-our-collective-conscience#:%7E:text=Children%20make%20up%20roughly%2050,Middle%20East%20and%20North%20Africa.">2.3 million people, half of whom are children</a>. </p>
<h2>Long list of atrocities</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/29/health-organisations-disease-gaza-population-outbreaks-conflict">American public health researcher Devi Sridhar projects that 500,000 Palestinians</a> may die of preventable diseases in 2024 if the war continues. More than 400,000 Gazans are <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/children-skeletons-rising-hunger-gaza-famine/">experiencing severe hunger now</a>, with the entire population at risk of famine. <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/intensifying-conflict-malnutrition-and-disease-gaza-strip-creates-deadly-cycle-threatens-over-11-million-children-enar">Rates of diarrhea in children under four</a> are 100 times the norm. </p>
<p>Israel is indiscriminately bombing civilians <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/israel-gaza-bombing-hamas-civilian-casualties-1.7068647">with an intensity not seen since the Second World War</a>. It’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/31/israeli-bombardment-destroyed-over-70-of-gaza-homes-media-office#:%7E:text=War%20on%20Gaza-,Israeli%20bombardment%20destroyed%20over%2070%25%20of%20Gaza%20homes%3A%20Report,most%20destructive%20in%20modern%20history.">destroyed more than 70 per cent of the homes in Gaza</a> and has bombed areas that it declared safe for refugees. </p>
<p>Gaza’s health-care system has collapsed. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/08/middleeast/gaza-children-losing-legs-disease-intl-hnk/index.html">Children’s limbs are being amputated</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-29/being-pregnant-in-gaza-unsafe-women-paying-heaviest-price-in-war/103241724">pregnant women are enduring Caesarean sections without anesthetic</a>. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/08/the-numbers-that-reveal-the-extent-of-the-destruction-in-gaza">On average, Israel is killing 160 civilians a day</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/23/gaza-media-office-says-100-journalists-killed-since-israeli-attacks-began#:%7E:text=Journalists%20working%20in%20areas%20of,them%20to%20silence%20their%20stories.">including journalists</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/5/gazas-entrepreneurs-are-being-killed-by-israel">and the</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/upfront/2023/12/22/israel-gaza-war-why-are-culture-and-society-targets">cultural and intellectual elites of Gaza are being targeted</a>. </p>
<p>This list of atrocities goes on and on. International aid workers say Israel’s attack on Gaza is <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/heads-of-humanitarian-groups-say-gaza-nightmare-is-worst-theyve-ever-seen/">the worst situation they have ever seen</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1734386240777048555"}"></div></p>
<h2>Violations of international law</h2>
<p>The West’s failure to protect the rights of Palestinians under international law contributed directly to this disaster.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/">For decades, Israel has blatantly violated international law in its treatment of Palestinians.</a> In contravention of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel settled occupied Palestine and employed progressively more violent and oppressive instruments of control to consolidate that settlement. </p>
<p>Israel kept Gaza under a 16-year <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/07/israels-collective-punishment-palestinians-illegal-and-affront-justice-un">illegal blockade</a> that created mass poverty and left <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1172086/">Gazan children malnourished</a> and without access to potable water. </p>
<p>Today, Jewish settlers and the Israeli military are using the distraction of the Gaza war to displace Palestinians from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/west-bank-settlers-violence-israel-palestinians-1.7019263">large parts of the occupied West Bank</a>.</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>If the West had held Israel to account, Oct. 7 might never have happened. Palestinians may have had their own state. Instead, the U.S. <a href="https://globalaffairs.org/bluemarble/how-us-has-used-its-power-un-support-israel-decades">has used its veto in the United Nations 45 times since 1972</a> to protect Israel from the consequences of its actions.</p>
<p>The West’s leaders have effectively sided with the occupier against the occupied, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of an <a href="https://www.amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity">increasingly brutal apartheid state</a>. </p>
<h2>Valuing the rule of law</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/11/1224273842/south-africa-outlines-genocide-case-against-israel-at-international-court-of-jus">South Africa recently accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice (ICJ)</a>. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/read-the-full-application-bringing-genocide-charges-against-israel-at-un-top-court">South Africa’s turn to international law to stop the war</a> illustrates that states in the Global South value the rule of law. </p>
<p>Most states understand their self-interest in maintaining the legitimacy of the international legal system. <a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248642/gaza-its-all-black-and-white-and-very-simple">It’s the West, led by the U.S.</a>, <a href="https://mg.co.za/thought-leader/opinion/2022-01-11-us-makes-a-mockery-of-international-law/">that has most frequently abused</a> <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ukraine-russia-war-looks-very-different-outside-west-n1294280">the rules it claims to support</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/namibia-condemns-germany-for-defending-israel-in-icj-genocide-case">Namibia has condemned Germany’s support for Israel</a> at the ICJ, asserting that Germany has learned nothing from its genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples between 1904 and 1908. The Israel-Hamas conflict is presented in the West through a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/21/the-anatomy-of-zionist-genocide">European, colonial mindset</a> that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3011576">rationalizes the history</a> of <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/palestinian-demands-for-liberation-must-never-be-ignored-again/">the displacement of Palestinians</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/10/us-islamophobia-antisemitism-hate-speech-israel-hamas-war-gaza">the U.S.</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/7/why-is-germany-so-viciously-anti-palestinian">Germany</a>, the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/17/israels-war-on-gaza-triggered-a-war-on-free-speech-in-the-west">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248079/yes-mainstream-media-are-biased-against-palestinians">elsewhere in the West</a>, <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/29/steinberg-weaponizing-antisemitism/?fbclid=IwAR1tW8prmPEBaWlxQIcNzEYH-z4XGggMxQXeuB7oM7fmgNlmvgqnhmfU9aM">anti-Semitism has been weaponized</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/22/harvard-law-pro-palestinian-letter-gaza-israel-censorship">silence pro-Palestinian voices</a>. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/16/high-profile-hosts-sacking-from-australian-broadcaster-sparks-outrage">Numerous reporters have been fired</a> for offending pro-Israel sensibilities. </p>
<h2>Disillusionment grows</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna133799">protests against the war continue unabated</a> and Israel <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/16/israel-palestine-quinnipiac-poll-00127726">is losing the youth of America</a>. Eventually, this could have serious political consequences, but that won’t save Palestinians today.</p>
<p><a href="https://thenewamerican.com/world-news/middle-east/turkey-accuses-west-of-hypocrisy-on-ukraine-and-gaza/">Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, recently said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What happened in Gaza has caused the West and Europeans to suddenly lose all their reputation and all the credit they had accumulated. They have spent all their credit in the eyes of humanity, and especially our generation. It won’t be easy for them to get it back.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The West no longer has credibility when it criticizes Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar or any other state for human rights abuses or breaches of international law. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/17/gaza-will-be-the-grave-of-the-western-led-world-order">Disgust</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/16/israels-war-on-gaza-and-the-wests-credibility-crisis">disillusionment with the West</a> is growing in the Global South. <a href="https://odi.org/en/insights/humanitarian-hypocrisy-double-standards-and-the-law-in-gaza/">Western hypocrisy in Gaza</a> is having real geopolitical implications.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun Narine has contributed to Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East and Jewish Voice for Peace.</span></em></p>The West no longer has credibility when it criticizes Russia, China or any other state for human rights abuses or breaches of international law due to its feeble response to Israel’s assault on Gaza.Shaun Narine, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, St. Thomas University (Canada)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211052024-01-18T20:22:40Z2024-01-18T20:22:40ZHow economics can shed light on the motivations of extremist groups like Hamas<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/how-economics-can-shed-light-on-the-motivations-of-extremist-groups-like-hamas" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>A lot of political analysis is available on Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. But economic analysis based on supply and demand also helps shed light on why conflict should be viewed systematically and structurally. </p>
<p>Such an analysis is at odds with the Israeli stance that ties its ongoing war in Gaza solely to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, rationalizing the deaths of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/14/israel-gaza-low-intensity/#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20Gaza%20Health,of%20them%20women%20and%20children.">almost 24,000 Gazan civilians.</a></p>
<p>Research from the <a href="https://j-etr.org/2021/08/30/teaching-the-economics-of-religion-to-undergraduate-economics-students/">economics of religion</a> allows us to cut through rationalizations and rhetoric to look at the issue systemically and structurally. </p>
<p>It helps us recognize the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/chinafinancialmarkets/51677">positive feedback loop</a> that exists when state-sanctioned discrimination and persecution leads to perceived grievances and violence/terrorism, which in turn elicits more state repression, causing the vicious circle to continue unabated. </p>
<p>This seems to have been the case through the years of Israeli military campaigns against Gaza through <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9975.html">various operations</a> like Cast Lead, Protective Edge, Pillar of Defence and so on. These operations are interlinked with Hamas firing indiscriminate rockets in a seemingly endless cycle of violence. </p>
<h2>Economics, not religion, fuels terrorism</h2>
<p>American economist Laurence Iannaccone has written several papers on the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40752990">economic theory of fundamentalism</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2012.00803.x">religious extremism</a> and what he calls the <a href="https://www.religjournal.com/pdf/ijrr02004.pdf">market for martyrs</a>. </p>
<p>According to Iannaccone, the market for martyrs is an economic model that helps us understand the origin of violent extremism based on economic principles like rational choice. </p>
<p>In this market, the killers are suppliers and those who recruit them are demanders. </p>
<p>Based on his work, a typical terrorist, suicide bomber or extremist is neither poor, ignorant nor mentally unstable. This is because poor, ignorant or enraged people can be incompetent and risky; well-educated and mentally composed terrorists are required to carry out successful terrorist missions. </p>
<p>This is consistent with <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/089533003772034925">economic literature</a> that shows there’s little direct connection between poverty or poor education and terrorism. In fact, Palestinian suicide bombers have had <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.487467">higher education and economic status</a> than the average Palestinian. </p>
<p>According to Iannaccone, militancy is a consequence of the social and political environment, not religion. Fundamentalism becomes more appealing when people have been displaced or ill-served by secular governments. </p>
<h2>Filling the void</h2>
<p>That void is filled by groups like <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/8/what-is-the-group-hamas-a-simple-guide-tothe-palestinian-group">Hamas that offer public services and welfare programs</a>. These violent groups also arise when basic civil liberties are undermined and economic opportunities are stifled. </p>
<p>According to another American economist, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2009.00287.x">Michael Intriligator</a>, terrorism is used by the weaker party in asymmetric warfare. That party usually has real or perceived grievances, and its motivation is not rooted in poverty or ignorance but in humiliation and retribution for past actions. </p>
<p>This resonates given the observation that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00004">Hamas perpetrators of Oct. 7 may have been children or minors</a> throughout various Israeli operations in Gaza over the last two decades. The current bombing will likely instigate the same cycle, creating future militants.</p>
<h2>Rational extremists</h2>
<p>Israel’s far-right government has made its sentiments clear. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/benjamin-netanyahu-amalek-israel-palestine-gaza-saul-samuel-old-testament/">evoked Amalek</a>, described in the Hebrew Bible as an avid persecutor of Israelites. A former Israel envoy to the United Nations referred to Palestinians as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr24GcCDgyM">inhuman animals</a>” and a right-wing Israeli lawmaker once called Palestinian children “<a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/refreshing-bluntness-shaked/">little snakes</a>.” </p>
<p>However, it’s important to note that the economic approach views extremists as rational, not psychopathic or animalistic. It also rejects the flawed argument that suicide bombers cannot be deterred because they have nothing to lose and nothing to live for. </p>
<p>It acknowledges that terrorists do have something to lose — and that they can be deterred. </p>
<p>An example amid the current conflict is the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/five-extremely-excruciating-weeks-talks-led-hamas-hostage-deal-rcna126422">successful negotiations with Hamas that allowed the release of some Israeli hostages.</a></p>
<p>A pathologically nihilist, psychopathic organization would have perpetuated random mayhem amid the negotiations and subsequent hostage releases, but instead Hamas had political objectives. This suggests the group can be reasoned with — and deterred. </p>
<p>Further negotiations and addressing economic disparities and grievances would therefore be a much more fruitful strategy for Israel than indiscriminate bombing that will simply perpetuate the cycle of violence and shift the violence to the next generation. </p>
<p>In short, the economic approach would call for a ceasefire.</p>
<h2>Supply and demand</h2>
<p>Iannaccone argues that the market for martyrs is undermined not by inhibiting the supply of martyrs, but by checking demand.</p>
<p>This is because there are many sources of supply; kill some terrorists and others can be recruited. Imprisonment and execution have minimal impact. </p>
<p>What is needed to choke off the market for martyrs is to check demand by changing the political and economic environment through civil liberties, social services, political representation and economic freedom, all of which would inhibit religious radicals from embracing violence. </p>
<p>Look at Christian extremists in the United States for evidence. Social, legal, economic and political reasons would make religiously sponsored violence unprofitable for American Christian radicals, who would suffer loss to reputation, influence, membership and funding. </p>
<p>In short, the best way to tackle terrorism is not through military might but by ensuring that political grievances are heard and addressed. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/history-repeats-itself-from-the-new-testament-to-qanon-156915">History repeats itself: From the New Testament to QAnon</a>
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<h2>Market for drugs and arms</h2>
<p>The market for martyrs can be tackled the same way as the market for illicit drugs by focusing on demand rather than supply — in other words, by addressing human needs, which is much cheaper than the costly spending on police and judiciary in the case of the war against drugs. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/5360.html">economic research</a> indicates that focusing on supply is lucrative, since it has a significantly positive impact on defence and security industries in Israel.</p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://aoav.org.uk/2023/stock-prices-of-major-defence-companies-surge-in-wake-of-october-7th-attacks-in-israel/">weapons manufacturers have gained in share prices in the aftermath of the Hamas attack of Oct. 7</a>. In short, the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza is profitable for war corporations even if the economic approach views it as counter-productive. </p>
<p>Tackling terrorism therefore requires not military aggression but providing public goods, respecting civil liberties and addressing political grievances, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/">which for Palestinians is the long-festering Israeli occupation of their territory.</a></p>
<p>A ceasefire and eventually an end to the structural and systemic occupation will end the conflict. It’s not the supply of extremists, but demands, that must be addressed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Junaid B. Jahangir 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>Real and perceived economic grievances often fuel extremist groups like Hamas. Here’s how the economic basics of supply provide a way to tackle terrorism.Junaid B. Jahangir, Associate Professor, Economics, MacEwan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.