National University of Modern Languages Islamabad: Palestinian Issue
National University of Modern Languages Islamabad: Palestinian Issue
National University of Modern Languages Islamabad: Palestinian Issue
PALESTINIAN ISSUE
From its beginnings, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been more than a local fight between two groups
who want the same piece of land. It has confounded the expectations of the great powers trying to resolve
it and created unintended consequences that have had a substantial impact beyond the region. Arguably
no conflict on earth combines so complex a mixture of religious fervor, national aspirations, historical and
economic grievances, territorial rivalry, and geopolitical impact. For Palestinians, and for Arabs and
Muslims around the world, the conflict with Israel is viewed through a prism of anger at past humiliations
- the bloody crusades of medieval times, centuries of domination of Jerusalem and the Arab world by
European colonialists, and a belief that predominantly Muslim Palestinians have been forced to pay with
their homeland for the sins of Europeans during the Holocaust. For Israelis, and for the global Jewish
diaspora, the conflict's narrative grows out of centuries of anti-Semitism and abuse at the hands of
Christians and Muslims alike.
In contrary to that, Israel engaged in massive arrests; during this period, Israel had the highest per capita
prison population in the world. Israel tried to smash the intifada with force, power and beatings. Army
commanders instructed troops to break the bones of demonstrators. From 1987 to 1991, Israeli forces
killed over 1,000 Palestinians, including over 200 under the age of 16. During the first intifada, Israel
instituted a secret policy of targeted killing in the Occupied Territories. To evade war crimes allegations,
for years Israel’s targeted killing policy was staunchly denied.
Oslo Accords-
Exactly 23 years have passed since the Oslo accords were signed on the White House lawn. For all their
shortcomings and ambiguities, the accords constituted a historic breakthrough in the century-old conflict
between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. It was the first peace agreement between the two principal parties to
the conflict: Israelis and Palestinians.
Among Palestinians, supporters of Arafat's Fatah movement accepted Oslo as an unfortunate, but
necessary, compromise. But rival groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine refused to recognize Israel, and warned that a two-state solution would betray the
aspirations of Palestinian refugees to return to land inside Israel lost in the 1948. There were skeptics on
both sides when the Oslo Accords were signed, and their number only grew as the process failed to
deliver on its promise.
The year of 2005 was marked with announcement by Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip in order to
strengthen Israel’s security, stability & reduce the burden on its economy. Despite official Israeli claims
that this unilateral disengagement transformed Gaza into “no longer occupied territory,” neither those
changes nor anything has happened. Israel’s occupation of Gaza continues to the present day because
Israel continues to exercise “effective control” over this area; because the conflict that produced the
occupation has not yet ended. In addition, Israel continues to control the Palestinian Population Registry,
which has the power and authority to define who is a “Palestinian” and who is a resident of Gaza.
Another manifestation of Israel’s continuing occupation of Gaza is its periodic incursions to arrest
residents and transport them into Israel. In the wake of Israel’s unilateral disengagement, the Israeli
administration enacted a new law to allow for the prosecution of Gazans in Israeli civil courts and their
imprisonment inside Israel.
The West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip together constitute the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPT), which have been under Israeli military occupation since June 1967.Prior to Israeli
occupation, the West Bank was controlled by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip by Egypt. More than 300,000
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip became refugees during Israel’s conquest in June 1967; the
vast majority were unable to return. In 1967, Israeli forces ethnically cleansed and destroyed a number of
Palestinian villages in the OPT. The first West Bank settlement was established in September 1967,
supported by the then “left-wing Zionist” Labor-led government. There are at least 600,000 Jews now
living in illegal settlements the Occupied West Bank, including 200,000 in East Jerusalem.
These settlements are illegal under international law and constitute a huge obstacle to peace. Building
civilian settlements beyond the demarcated territories does not violate the letter of the Oslo accords but it
most decidedly violates its spirit. As a result of settlement expansion the area available for a Palestinian
state has been steadily shrinking to the point where a two-state solution is barely conceivable. The so-
called security barrier that Israel has been building on the West Bank since 2002 further encroaches on
Palestinian land. Land-grabbing and peace-making do not go together: it is one or the other. Oslo is
essentially a land-for-peace deal. The rate of settlement growth in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed East
Jerusalem is staggering. Thousands more settlement homes are planned or under construction. Despite his
best efforts, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, failed to get the Netanyahu government to accept a
settlement freeze as a precondition for renewing the peace talks suspended in 2010. As long as Netanyahu
remains in power, it is a safe bet that no breakthrough will be achieved in the new round of talks.
Palestinian homes are routinely demolished by Israeli forces for “lacking the right permit;” yet more than
95 percent of Palestinian permit applications are rejected by Israeli military courts which are enforced in
the occupied West Bank. Sixty percent of the West Bank remains under full Israeli military and civil
control. In the rest of the West Bank, the Israeli military conducts raids at will. It is clear that if any other
nation had behaved in such a manner toward any other people, the international community would have
intervened militarily by now.
The recent resolution passed by a vote of 14-0 with the U.S. abstaining, describes Israel’s settlements in
the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. It is the first
time U.S. declined to block a Security Council resolution that Israel considered hostile. Netanyahu
warned countries that backed the measure they would pay a diplomatic and economic price.