By: Inzam PI

Both Jews and Palestinians are victims of the ongoing conflict. Negating one against the other will not lead to a solution. You may disagree, but the only thing Palestinians can do now is forgive the violence and horror that Zionists have inflicted upon them and vice-versa. Of course, I am not here to suggest what they both should or should not do. Forgiveness is powerful but painful and necessary for a peaceful future. However, acts of forgiving from their side won’t be possible as long as Israeli political leaders’ heinous obsession with war and the United States’s biassed approach towards the Israel-Palestine conflict. Israel gives nearly zero importance to UN resolutions as well as the ruling of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Furthermore, these organisations lack the necessary enforcement mechanisms to effectively implement their rulings.

Answering the following question is crucial to avoid falling into false narratives in a world where information is abundant. Is the Israel-Palestine conflict a religious conflict or a product of colonialism? Drawing from Edward Said’s critique of the clash of civilisation, Prof. A.K. Ramakrishnan often says, “Please don’t fall into the trap of the clash of civilization.” In my opinion, it is indeed an offshoot of colonialism, which gradually triggered hatred against each other and took the form of what appears to be a religious conflict. Colonial Zionism interrupted peace and harmony and instilled poisons of sectarianism and hatred in the minds of the people, which destroyed the coexistence between diverse communities living in Palestine. Ussama Makdisi clearly states in his book “The Age of Coexistence,” “Advents of British-backed colonial Zionism in Palestine sought to transform the multireligious land of Palestine into a national Jewish state, led by Ashkenazi Jewish settlers.” He further argues that the British Mandate viewed Arabs and Jews as irreconcilable antonyms. It started with dividing the ruins of the Ottoman Empire under British and French colonial rule, which resulted in sowing the initial seeds of Zionism into the land of Palestine. As a result, the Arab-Jew distinction, or the process of othering, was later orchestrated in the form of a Zionist agenda. Be it the Nabi Musa riots, the Hebron Massacre, the pogrom of Jews in Baghdad, or the Hadessah medical envoy incident, almost everything was an outcome of a well-articulated colonial project that spread disinformation and instilled fear among the people against each other. A thorough reading of history without subscribing to any false narrative is inevitable to understand the complexity and different layers of the conflict. On the one hand, anti-colonial resistance and years of pain involuntarily mixed with anti-Jewish sentiment; on the other hand, anti-Arab perception combined with Zionist arrogance led to a further acceleration of hatred towards each other. Hatred was inevitable.

The crucial question is, Can Israelis and Palestinians Achieve a New Era of Coexistence? The answer is yes. A two-state solution is still possible to revive the age of coexistence, but only side by side. Looking back into history, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived harmoniously in the land of Palestine before the British invasion and the rise of settler colonialism. Zionism’s political project acted as a catalyst for communal riots, inciting suspicion and hatred among Arabs and Jews alike. Zionism was highly successful in turning the Jews against Arabs and vice versa by employing crooked strategies, deceit, and betrayal of innocent indigenous people. No need to say more; the UN partition plan in 1947 itself was a colonial baked cake where only one child got the cake, but the other remained starving. In other words, the partition plan paradoxically produced only one state, the state of Israel, while implicitly allowing the newly formed state to oppress and dehumanize the other.

If someone is labelling Hamas as a terrorist organisation, I will have a different say on it. The current ruling party of Israel, Likud itself, traces its roots back to a ruthless terrorist organisation named Irgun, later renamed to Lehi and taking the current form. However, for Israelis, Irgun and Haganah militants represented the pillar of their right to self-determination. In my opinion, if someone argues that the Likud party embodies the democratic ethos and the current Israeli government is democratic, I will view it from a different perspective. Former Prime Ministers of Israel, such as Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, actively participated in far-right nationalist and aggressive military organisations such as Irgun and Lehi, all while enjoying complete impunity. Using the same logic, I would like to argue Hamas cannot be considered a terrorist organisation since it is a democratically elected body.

Indeed, Hamas’s 7th October attack on Israel was a condemnable act of violence. Innocent civilians should not be indiscriminately killed, even for the sake of liberation. However, accepting and understanding the underlying reasons behind the formation of a so-called terrorist organisation and the later democratic victory of Hamas is equally important. The earlier Palestinian resistance to colonialism had subscribed to numerous forms, which include non-violent gatherings, petitions, public speeches, discussion, pleas, etc. However, it failed to achieve the objective of preventing the British from unwaveringly supporting the colonial Zionists. Thus, for Palestinians, Hamas is an integral part of their resistance against occupation. Moreover, they consider it an organisation that could reach and address Palestinian grassroots issues. It has emerged as their representative body, democratically winning both elections and the hearts of the people, while the Palestinian Liberation Organisation has consistently failed to find a solution to Palestinians’ ongoing suffering.

Highlighting Israel as the only democratic country in the so-called war-torn West Asia region is nothing more than an organized attempt to whitewash genocide, assisted by the weaponization of artificial intelligence and targeted killing of civilians in Gaza. Similarly, we cannot use the historical baggage of Jews and the ongoing persecution of Jewish minorities worldwide as a justification for the surveillance, dehumanisation, and indiscriminate killing of Palestinians.

People on both sides have suffered a lot. Enough is enough. The issue requires immediate resolution. Reviving an age of coexistence again is the need of the hour today. A two-state solution is essential, or else one country will treat the other as second-class citizens, and the chain of discrimination will be never-ending. Israel’s treatment of people in the so-called Occupied Palestine Territory (OPT) exemplifies the same. An ecumenical framework, existing side by side, and a method of coexistence should be the way ahead.

But again, the question arises: is that possible? Though the other ministers in his own cabinet demand the end of war and a ceasefire, Netanyahu, backed by his minions like Itamar Ben-Gvir, won’t let that happen. There is a growing allegation against Netanyahu that he merely seeks to maintain his power in the States, using it as a tool to conceal corruption and political instability within the country. These allegations are neither mere rhetoric nor unsubstantiated.

Regarding the role of the United States, will US election results provide any hope for the future of Palestinians? I would say, no. Neither Trump nor Harris will be interested in mediation or permanently settling the issue. Although Harris attempts to portray her as a progressive and saviour of the oppressed, she will also follow in Biden’s footsteps in a different way. Harris is in fact equal to Biden; the opinion and stance are the same, with a marginal change in the nature and tone of talking. Israel is now digging their own grave. As Prof. Bansidhar Pradhan from Jawaharlal Nehru University once said, “I am not afraid of the future of Palestine. But I am afraid of the future of Israel.” Almost the majority of the international community has turned against the Netanyahu-led, horrendous war on Gaza. The ego and arrogance of Israel’s political leaders could potentially incur significant costs for the country.